Rescuers have found the bodies of nine workers who died trapped in a gold mine in China - bringing deaths to 10 from an accident that occurred weeks earlier, local officials said Tuesday.
Twenty-two miners working around 2,000 feet underground were trapped for two weeks following a Jan. 10 explosion at the Hushan mine in Qixia, a gold-producing region in the Shandong province of China.
One remains missing. One miner died last week.
The miners relied on porridge, nutritional liquids and medicines lowered through shafts drilled by rescue teams. A few days before their rescue, the surviving miners requested a traditional meal of sausages, local officials said.
There was elation when the 11 survivors were lifted to the surface Sunday.
"From Sunday afternoon to this afternoon, rescuers have not stopped searching and found the nine trapped miners who unfortunately all died," Yantai mayor Chen Fei said in remarks during a news briefing late Monday.
Chen Yumin, who heads the rescue group, said it appeared all nine had died during a second explosion as they attempted to climb to the mine entrance.
The explosions generated 70 metric tons of debris that obstructed an access shaft and disabled elevators. The cause of the accident is under investigation. Yumin said the explosions occurred around one-and-a-half hours apart.
The 11 survivors are considered stable. Two of them are in serious but not life-threatening conditions - including one who had not eaten for 14 days before being pulled to safety.
Search and rescue efforts will continue until the remaining miner is found, the mayor said. "Until this worker is found, we won't give up," he said.
Authorities have detained mine managers of the mining project for not immediately reporting the accident.
China's mines are among the deadliest in the world. Last year, the country recorded 573 deaths in relation to its mining activities, the National Mine Safety Administration said.
