A miner buried alive for 21 days, who only survived by drinking muddy water, was rescued from his pitch black tomb on Wednesday - giving hope six other coal mine-flood victims may still be alive.
Yang Xianbin was trapped in a mine shaft in Central China's Henan Province following an accident on March 7.
Yang, who was immediately taken to hospital, was said to be in a normal condition with 70 heart beats per minute, normal blood pressure and intelligible.
Rescuers' hopes of finding the six other miners still missing has now been rekindled.
The flood swept along a platform where Yang and his co-workers were situated on the evening of March 7.
As the water rapidly rose, Yang clambered up the tunnel, grabbing on to a mining lamp which had only eight hours' energy but gave him much support later.
Yang said he drank two handfuls of dirty water twice a day to stay alive and shut down the lamp and opened it only when he felt extremely desperate.
(China Daily March 29, 2002)
