Footage showed the first miner to be rescued, a black blindfold across his eyes, being lifted out of a mine shaft in the morning.

The miner was extremely weak, CCTV said on its Weibo site. Rescue workers wrapped the barely responsive man in a blanket before taking him to hospital by ambulance.

Later, another three miners were brought out from a different section of the mine, including one who was injured. Three more from the same section followed in the early afternoon.

Twenty-two workers were trapped in the Hushan mine by the Jan. 10 blast in Qixia, a major gold-producing region under the administration of Yantai in coastal Shandong province.

One miner has died and 11 have not been in contact with rescue teams, according to a Xinhua report from last week.

Officials said on Thursday it could take another two weeks to clear “severe blockages” before they could drill shafts to reach a group of 10 men who had been receiving supplies of food from the rescue team.

State media said earlier however that rescuers were hoping to reach the 10 men in the mine’s 5th section on Sunday.