China rescues first person from Shandong gold mine: CCTV

BEIJING: A miner was rescued from a gold mine in northern China on Sunday morning and rushed to hospital for treatment, state broadcaster CCTV said, after being trapped 14 days below ground by an explosion.

The miner was "extremely weak", according to a post on CCTV's Weibo microblog site. TV footage showed the exhausted miner, a black blindfold across his eyes, being lifted out of the mine shaft and covered in a blanket before being carried away by rescue workers.

Twenty-two workers were trapped in the Hushan mine by the Jan. 10 blast in Qixia, a major gold-producing region under the administration of Yantai in coastal Shandong province.

One miner has died and 11 have not been in contact with rescue teams, according to a Xinhua report from last week.

The rescued miner was found in a different section of the mine from a group of 10 men who have been receiving supplies of food.

Officials said on Thursday it could take another two weeks to clear "severe blockages" before they could drill shafts to reach the 10 men.