Rescuers send food, letters of hope to trapped Chinese miners

The rescue team sent 360 bags of glucose, each 200 ml, down the 250-meter Wangjialing Coal Mine in Shanxi Province after hearing banging on a metal pipe.

Pan Zengwu, deputy chief of the Shanxi provincial coal geological bureau, said rescuers heard what they believed to be the trapped miners making the noise at 2:15 p.m..

The rescuers knocked on the drill pipe to respond, Pan said.

He said the rescue team sent 360 bags of glucose, each 200 ml, down the 250-meter pit.

Rescuers have been drilling holes to pump out water and send down food.

An iron wire was found attached at the end of a drill pipe when it was lifted to the surface at 3 p.m..

Pan said this was apparently tied on by the trapped miners.

Rescuers tried again to make contact with the miners by shouting through the pipe and knocking on the pipe at about 6:02 p.m. and 6:10 p.m. after they sent more bags of glucose down the pit.

After a period of silence, Xinhua reporters at the site clearly heard several sounds of tapping on the pipe from underground.

"It is a good news. So long as they are still alive, it is all worth it for us to work even harder," said a rescuer surnamed Liu from central Henan Province.

With glucose, rescuers sent a plastic bottle containing two short letters, a ballpoint pen and paper down the pit. They also sent down a special phone for use in mines, Kazinform refers to Xinhuanet.

See www.xinhuanet.com