Last trapped Chilean miner rescued
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The last rescued miner Luis Urzua walked out of the capsule. [Xinhua] |
The last of the 33 trapped Chilean miners, 54-year-old Luis Urzua, the shift foreman, was rescued on Wednesday after having stayed underground for some 70 days.
Before Urzua, no one ever in history has been trapped deep underground for so long and survived.
The atmosphere at the scene exploded when Urzua walked out of the capsule. Waves of horns, sirens and cheers sound for long.
President Sebastian Pinera bear-hugged the foreman in a high spirit, and invited him to stand beside him to join the hundreds of others at the scene to sing the national anthem.
Praising the foreman "a very good leader of the group," Pinera said "We're going to thank everybody from the bottom of our heart."
Urzua responded with thanks to everybody who have participated in the rescue. "I am very proud of what you have done," he said to the president. He then shook hands with the standing close to him.
When Pinera greeted Urzua, the miner told him "I expect this never happen again in Chile. ... I am proud of being a Chilean."
"We have done what the whole world was waiting for," he told the president, adding "The hard fought in the 70 days were not in vain."
As the capsule starts lifting up, great joy was seen from everybody's face and tens of hundreds of rescuers on the surface could not help singing spontaneously: "Let's go, miners! Let's go, miners! Tonight we are going to rescue you."
The 33 miners, who have been trapped since Aug. 5, were all lifted out to surface after enduring 69 days of ordeal in a hot, humid shelter some 700 meters underground.
After the first miner was pulled out to the ground, Pinera delivered a triumphant speech, saying "This country is capable of great things ...We Chileans have shown the best of us."
Describing the experience as "a wonderful night that Chileans and the whole world will never forget," Pinera noted that it was unprecedented in the history of the world for its magnitude and complexity.
The president said his government will strive to improve mine workers' safety.
The miners, who have been trapped since Aug. 5, were confirmed alive on Aug. 22 and it had been estimated that the rescue would take four months.
On Oct. 9, a 624-meter deep rescue tunnel was completed. Chilean Mining Minister Laurence Golborne then declared that the extraction of the miners could begin starting Wednesday.
On early Wednesday, the first miner Florencio Avalos was lifted to surface and then one by one the trapped miners were brought back to safety every half hour or so.
After Urzua's ascent, Pinera made a televised address to the nation immediately, saying "When the last miner exited the mine, I was moved as every Chilean was."
"They were experiencing a kind of rebirth," he said.
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