BONANZA, Nicaragua (AP) — Rescue workers and trapped miners alike frantically dug away at opposite sides of rock and mud that blocked a Nicaragua gold mine, finally succeeding in freeing at least 20 men. Efforts to reach five miners still missing continued Saturday.
Antonio Diaz said the miners tried to cheer each other up inside the dark, cold shaft, attacking the slide with their picks and shovels by the light of helmet lamps. But after 24 hours, they began feeling hungry and some started losing hope.
“The sadness of feeling yourself trapped in a hole is immense but I never lost hope,” said the 32-year-old miner from a hospital bed in the town of Bonanza, near the El Comal gold and silver mine. “I kept thinking I was too young to die and above all, I thought about my two daughters.”
He said the miners finally cut a hole through the blockage and started shouting, but at first there was no answer. “Hours later, someone heard us, and when he answered us we felt life returning to our bodies,” Diaz said. “God had answered our pleas to keep living.”
Bonanza Mayor Alexander Alvarado, a former miner who participated in the rescue efforts, said it took about 100 men working around the clock to reach those trapped and even then, it took about another two hours to bring the first miner out to safety.
“We kept telling them their families were waiting for them and to know that God was with them and was giving them a second chance in life,” Alvarado said.
Two of the freelance miners escaped shortly after the Thursday morning slide, and officials said another 20 were brought out late Friday. Mirta Lagos, an official of the ruling Sandinista Party who was at the site, said five families reported they have a miner missing.
The rescued miners were checked by paramedics and taken to a hospital in Bonanza, about 260 miles (420 kilometers) northeast of Managua. Interior Vice Minister Carlos Najar said they were a bit dehydrated but in good health.
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