Dozen Trapped Miners Confirmed Alive After Explosion

What’s new: A total of 22 workers are trapped in a gold mine following an accidental explosion more than a week ago in East China’s Shandong province, 12 of whom have been confirmed alive while the other 10 are still unreachable, according local rescue teams.

On Sunday afternoon, rescue teams succeeded in communicating with some of the trapped miners by drilling through the collapsed mine and delivering supplies including flashlights, nutrient solution, medicine, paper and pens, state media reported.

Rescue team members received a note from the trapped workers confirming that 12 of the 22 miners are alive with four injured. The condition of the other 10 were unknown, according to media reports.

The background: The 22 have been trapped in a gold mine located at the city of Qixia more than a week after an explosion damaged the exit and communication channels.

Provincial authorities have sacked two top officials in the city responsible for the accident, including municipal party chief Yao Xiuxia and mayor Zhu Tao, who failed to report the incident within an hour as required under government rules. The explosion was not reported until 30 hours after it occurred.

In a commentary, the state-run Xinhua News Agency condemned the local authorities' late report, which was an act of “denying rescue chances of those trapped workers” and “being the enemy of the people.”

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Contact reporter Lu Zhenhua (zhenhualu@caixin.com) and editor Marcus Ryder (marcusryder@caixin.com)