A dozen gold miners in China trapped thousands of feet underground for over a week have asked rescuers to send down medical supplies as they pass notes through tiny passages in the shaft to update their dire situation.
"We are in urgent need of medicine, painkillers, medical tape, external anti-inflammatory drugs, and three people have high blood pressure," one note read, according to state media.
Local authorities said that a total of 22 miners were more than 2,000 feet underground after a blast caused the shafts to implode last week. The incident happened near the city of Qixia in eastern Shandong province.
Survivors informed rescuers that large amounts of water are slowly pouring into the place where they are trapped.
The ordeal of the trapped miners has caught the attention of everyone on social media and people from all around the country have published posts of sympathy and encouragement. On the Chinese social media website Weibo, the hashtag "Qixia gold mine incident" was viewed more than 130 million times.
"I saw the note while I was watching the morning news and burst into tears. I hope they will rescue the trapped workers as soon as possible," one user on the Weibo chat service said in a post.
Rescue workers initially attempted to find survivors but were unable to see any signs of life. But on Sunday workers heard knocks and drilled through massive layers of rocks before they pinpointed the location of the trapped miners.
Officials said that at least 12 of the workers were still alive. The fate of the other miners is still unknown.
State media said a phone line was lowered into a shaft on Tuesday as rescuers are drilling more holes to reach the trapped workers.
Authorities have arrested the managers of the mining operation for failing to immediately report the accident, which occurred at a section of the mine that was still under construction.
