China: Survivors found five days after deadly Shandong mine collapse

Rescuers in China have found eight survivors trapped inside a wrecked mine five days after it collapsed. The miners were located using infrared cameras, and authorities are now drawing up plans to pull them out of the cavity in Shandong province.

At least one worker was killed as the gypsum mine collapsed on Christmas Day. Nine people are still missing while 11 others managed to flee or were pulled to safety shorty after the rock fall, which was so violent it registered as a small earthquake of 4.0 magnitude.

On 30 December rescuers made contact with the group of eight workers stuck underneath the ground. They could be seen waving hands on infrared cameras told rescue teams they were in an underground passage that resisted the collapse.

State media reported the men were in good health but hungry, and authorities were working to send down provisions. Two days after the collapse, the mine owner fell into a well and drowned in an apparent suicide.

China has been hit by a series of deadly industrial incidents in recent years that have underscored how the country's race for development and companies' lust for profits is sometimes accompanied by negligence toward safety.

On 20 December a massive man-made mountain of soil and waste swamped an industrial park in the southern city of Shenzhen leaving dozens of people trapped underneath the mud.