Rescuers in east China pulled eleven miners from hundreds of metres underground where they had been trapped for two weeks, state media reported, as the race to locate the remaining ten intensified.

The miners were brought to the surface starting from around eleven o’clock in the morning on Sunday.

One miner was in extremely weak physical condition and rushed to hospital.

The eleven miners were rescued after the air ventilator shaft was cleared, a further ten remain uncounted for.