BEIJING, China (Reuters) -- All 69 Chinese coal miners trapped underground by flood waters for more than three days emerged in broad daylight blindfolded, soaked but safe on Wednesday, state media said.
Soaring demand and profits have driven China's coal mines to push production beyond safety limits.
The miners had been trapped in the Zhijian colliery in Shan county in the central province of Henan since Sunday morning when a flash flood caused by heavy rain surged through an old shaft.
State television said the miners were wet through when they came out of the pit entrance blindfolded to protect their eyes against the light.
"He was met by an applauding crowd when he was brought to the ground," Xinhua said of the first miner rescued.
"Most miners were escorted by rescuers, as they could not walk on their own, while some miners had to be put on stretchers."
An intact ventilation pipe and a telephone line were key to the rescue of the miners, who had felt weak and cold, state media said.
Rescuers sent down milk to the miners via a hose installed down through the ventilation pipe, the Beijing News said. The miners drank it with their helmets.
More than 500 colleagues have been working around the clock to pump out flood water and remove mud and rocks that blocked a 280-meter passage between where the trapped miners were and the pit entrance, the newspaper said.
There were 102 miners working underground when the accident happened. Thirty-three escaped.
The state-owned mine has a designed annual production capacity of 210,000 tonnes but actually produces 300,000 tonnes a year, Xinhua said.
China's coal mining industry is the deadliest in the world, with a total of 4,746 people killed in thousands of blasts, floods and other accidents in 2006. Soaring demand and profits have driven the mines to push production beyond safety limits.
State television on Tuesday quoted a top work safety official as saying that it was extremely rare and lucky that ventilation pipes and telephone lines survived such an accident.
One of China's worst pit flooding accidents in recent years was in August 2005 when 123 miners were killed in Xingning in the southern province of Guangdong.
Only six bodies were found when the government gave up rescue efforts two weeks later. E-mail to a friend 
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