Two miners who spent nine days trapped in a collapsed South Korean zinc mine living on instant coffee powder have been rescued.
The men, aged 62 and 56, reportedly kept warm by lighting a fire and constructing a plastic tent.
They are said to be in stable condition.
It comes during a time of national mourning for South Korea, after more than 150 people were killed in a crash in the capital Seoul last week.
The two miners were stranded nearly 200 meters underground after part of the zinc mine they were working in collapsed on October 26 in Bonghwa, in the east of the country.
They were finally rescued on the night of November 4 – more than nine days into their ordeal. Both were able to get out of the mine and were taken to a local hospital. Their doctor said they should make a full recovery.
President Yoon Suk-yeol called their rescue “truly miraculous”.
“Thank you and thank you again for coming back safe and sound from the crossroads of life and death,” he wrote on Facebook.
Authorities said the miners survived by drinking water falling from the ceiling and using instant coffee mix powder as a meal.
The rescue operation began on Thursday when rescuers drilled a hole and inserted a small camera in a bid to locate the miners, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.
They were eventually discovered sitting side by side to keep warm, in a spacious chamber where several mine shafts meet.
The niece of one of the survivors described how her uncle did not recognize her when he came out because he was wearing an eye mask after nearly ten days in the dark.
She described her rescue as “surreal”, according to the AFP news agency