Fifteen miners including a Chinese national, who were trapped underground for more than 72 hours in a collapsed Tanzanian gold mine, have been rescued, police said on Sunday.

Mponjoli Mwabulambo, Geita Regional Police Commander said that the trapped miners were rescued at around 10 a.m. local time and they were found when their condition started deteriorating as they had no water and food for more than three days.

"There is no one who died in this incident, though one of them was injured by a nail inside the mine pit," the regional police chief told Xinhua.

According to Mwabulambo, the 15 people survived because they were getting oxygen through pipes that supply air in the mine pit.

"The oxygen pipes were not disturbed during the entire rescue operation. The rescue team was very keen to ensure that those people continue to get air inside the mine," he said.

He said: "The challenge they were facing is food, we tried to find better ways of supplying them with foodstuffs by Saturday, we failed, but we're happy that we find them alive."

"We are now taking the survivors hospital for medical check-up and treatments," Mwabulambo said, without divulging the name of the hospital, where they were taken to.

The rescued people were trapped on January 26 when the RZT gold mine, owned by a Chinese investor collapsed.

Mwabulambo said that the incident occurred at around 4 a.m. local time in a remote area of Nyarugusu located on the western shores of Lake Victoria.

source: Xinhua