Chile mine accident:

Trapped miners alive

CHILE: Chile rejoiced Sunday hearing that 33 miners trapped deep below ground for more than two weeks were alive and apparently in good condition, but engineers warned that rescuing them could yet take months.

The miners were able to send up a note through a shaft drilled 700 meters (2,300 feet) into the earth to alert engineers and family members above ground that they were together and alive inside an emergency shelter.

“All 33 of us are well inside the shelter,” said the note, written in bold red capital letters.

President Sebastian Pinera read the message aloud and waved it in the air, as friends and relatives wept with joy outside the northern Chilean mine whose entrance collapsed on August 5, trapping the workers inside.

His words were met by a roar of cheers after days of fading hopes outside the San Jose gold and copper mine near the city of Copiapo, 800 kilometers (500 miles) north of Santiago.

A remotely operated camera lowered down the bore hole later showed the miners sweaty and shirtless in the hot (32-36 degrees Celsius, 90-97 Fahrenheit) shelter, but in apparently good condition and high spirits.

“Many of them approached the camera and put their faces right up against it, like children, and we could see happiness and hope in their eyes,” Pinera said, adding that the images “gave me a lot of happiness and faith that this is going to end well.”

National Emergency Office regional director Carlos Garcia said the trapped miners had some water and lights and that in the next few hours they would get fresh supplies of food and water, which they would have to ration out carefully. Garcia said relatives would be soon allowed to speak with their loved ones through a cable dropped down the drill bore.

As word spread that the miners were alive after 17 days below ground, drivers honked their horns in the capital Santiago and thousands of people gathered in other cities to celebrate and wave national flags.

Santiago, Monday, AFP