Reaching trapped China mine workers ‘will take at least 15 days’

Rescuers have delivered food, medicine and other supplies to the group of 11 as they work to remove debris and improve ventilation.

Rescuers work at the site of a gold mine that suffered an explosion in Qixia in eastern China’s Shandong Province. Picture: Wang Kai/Xinhua via AP

It will take at least 15 more days to get through a massive amount of debris and reach miners already trapped for 11 days since an explosion in a gold mine in eastern China, authorities said.

The mine shaft is blocked 350 metres (1,000ft) below the surface by 70 tons of debris that extends down another 100 metres (330ft), the Yantai city government said in a statement on its social media account.