Society
Foreign media laud Chinese effort in rescuing miners
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-04-07 15:40
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BEIJING - After more than 190 hours of continuous hard work and scientific rescue operation, 115 of the 153 miners trapped in a flooded mine in northern China have been pulled out alive.
The rescue operation not only represented a miracle of life, but also marked an unbelievable achievement in China's history of disaster relief.
In recent days, the story of the Chinese government's all-out efforts to save those trapped miners received extensive and positive coverage in a number of major media organizations in Russia, the United States, Germany, France and other countries.
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It said China's success in pulling out so many miners alive after they were trapped underground for a week was "undoubtedly a miracle."
"Whenever a miner was successfully rescued, all the rescuers on the scene would be excited," the report said.
Khakasia, Russia's independent news agency, said there is no word other than "miracle" to describe the rescue operation. It also noted that almost the entire Chinese nation was watching the latest developments of the rescue efforts and countless people were excited at hearing the good news of so many miners being saved.
Six major US newspapers, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, USA Today and the International Herald Tribune published stories Tuesday on China's success in rescuing 115 trapped miners.
The stories in the New York Times, the Washington Post and the International Herald Tribune were also accompanied by relevant photos.
A lengthy story in the New York Times said that "from the start, China's latest coal mine disaster seemed likely to end as so many others: a failed rescue effort, grieving relatives, few if any survivors."
But then, more than a week after the accident, rescuers had dragged 115 men up to safety by Monday, it said.
"By any standard in the dangerous world of mining," the newspaper said, "it was a marvel of good fortune."
In its story, the Washington Post quoted David Feickert, a coal mine safety adviser to the Chinese government, as saying that "this is probably one of the most amazing rescues in the history of mining anywhere."
The rescue operation in the Wangjialing coal mine in China's Shanxi province took place at a time when Germans were enjoying their Easter holidays, so most paper media in Germany had stopped printing.
Still, most major German media outlets reported the story on their web sites. Most newspapers published follow-up stories on Tuesday after they resumed printing.
The Spiegel Online published a story on the rescue operation on Monday, entitled "Wonder of Xiangning."
It said during the past few days, more than 3,000 rescuers worked day and night to rescue those trapped miners.
To prevent themselves from falling into the mine due to exhaustion, some of them strapped themselves to the wall of the trenches. A rescuer was quoted as saying "the miracle finally happened."
Families of the rescued miners who had lost all hope of being reunited with their husbands, sons or fathers after such a catastrophe, burst into happy tears as they heard the good news, said an article in the German daily Die Welt on Tuesday.
"It is a miracle that so many people can survive. It is worth all our efforts without sleep for several days," an exhausted rescuer was quoted as saying in front of the TV camera.
A doctor was quoted by the newspaper as saying that it is a victory of people's will to live -- a will which was also demonstrated by the survivors of the 8.0-magnitude quake in China's southwest Sichuan province in 2008.
The leading French newspaper Le Figaro said as the chances of finding any survivors buried underneath were becoming slimmer, human sounds heard through a pipe extended hope.
By Monday, there were still 38 miners waiting to be rescued, the paper said.
Dong-A Ilbo, one of South Korea's major newspapers, said "a miracle occurred in China when most of the 153 miners that were buried in a mine for eight days have been rescued and the remaining may still be alive."
South Korea's YTN television reported on Tuesday that the buried miners managed to survive for more than a week in the dark tunnels drinking only black coal water before being finally rescued.
Describing the rescue as "a miracle," Egypt's Al Jumhuria newspaper said more than 3,000 rescuers and 300 medical workers remain on the scene, trying to save those still trapped underground.
