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More than half trapped Chilean miners free

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Twenty of the 33 Chilean miners who were trapped more than 600 meters underground for over two months after a rock collapse have been freed.

Twenty of the 33 Chilean miners who were trapped more than 600 meters underground for over two months after a rock collapse have been freed.

On August 5, 700,000 tons of rock collapsed trapping the miners deep in the gold and copper mine.

The rescue operation started on Tuesday evening with the first miner, Florencio Avalos, being raised to the surface. He was greeted by excited relatives and Chilean President Sebastian Pinera, who was waiting anxiously near the rescue shaft.

The 31-year-old father of two hugged Pinera, who made the unprecedented decision to start a rescue operation involving NASA specialists and drilling experts from a dozen countries that designed a special capsule for hoisting up the trapped miners.

The operation is expected to take more than a day as it takes about an hour for each person to be brought the surface in the capsule.

Chile has taken extensive precautions to ensure the miners' privacy, using a screen to block the top of the shaft from more than 1,000 journalists at the scene.

The miners are being ushered through an inflatable tunnel, like those used in sports stadiums, to an ambulance for a trip of several hundred meters to a triage station for an immediate medical check-up.

The only media allowed to record them coming out of the shaft are a government photographer and Chile's state television channel.

MOSCOW, October 13 (RIA Novosti)

 

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