Miners trapped underground for a week send note to say some are still alive

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Scores of trapped miners trapped underground for more than a week have sent a note to say at least 12 of the 22 are still alive.

The men were working at a gold mine near Qixia city in eastern Shandong province, China, when a blast trapped them underground more than 600m from the mine's entrance.

After a long period without any contact, rescuers managed to drill through the mine until they heard "knocking sounds".

A note sent up by the trapped workers said that 12 of them were still alive, the local government said in a statement.

The note read: "We are in urgent need of cold medicine, painkillers, medical tape, external anti-inflammatory drugs, and three people have high blood pressure.

"We wish the rescuers won't stop so that we can still have hope. Thank you."

The note also said there is a large amount of underground water where the miners are trapped and four people are injured.

The state of the other 10 workers in unknown while the dozen people accounted for are in the middle section of the mine.

Footage from CCTV showed rescuers sending a metal wire with food parcels attached down to the miners before pulling the wire back up with the note attached.

The explosion badly damaged the communications system and exit ladder from the mine, which is owned by the Shandong Wucailong Investment Co. Ltd.

Two officials have already been sacked over the accident.

Mining accidents are quite common in China, where the industry has a poor safety record and regulations are often weakly enforced.

In December, 18 miners died in a carbon monoxide leak at a coal mine in the southwestern city of Chongqing.

In Chile in 2010, 33 miners were rescued after being trapped underground in a copper-gold mine for more than two months.

• China

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