A miner has been rescued alive after surviving for 14 days in a flooded gold and silver mine.
The mine collapsed with over 25 workers inside on 25 March.
According to reports, 21 managed to escape but four remained trapped.
READ MORE: Angry passenger slaps flight attendant on packed plane
Crews saved one miner, named as José Alejandro Cástulo Colín, 44, after five days.
It took two weeks to rescue Francisco Zapata Nájera, who was trapped 985ft (300m) underground.
The 42-year-old was found by divers on Tuesday (7 Apr).
He was rescued after a continuous and exhausting two-week search operation at the Santa Fe mine in El Rosario, Sinaloa.
Francisco survived in isolation and total darkness by climbing onto a ledge to find a pocket of air above the freezing water line.
Rescue teams revealed that the miner kept his battery-powered helmet lamp turned off for the vast majority of the time to conserve energy, only flicking it on periodically to check his surroundings.
More than 300 rescue workers, including specialised divers and state and federal forces, were deployed to the site.
The breakthrough came when search divers navigating the murky, flooded tunnels spotted a faint glow of light ahead.
Francisco had turned on his helmet lamp after hearing the rescue team approaching.
Footage captured the moment divers reached the exhausted miner, who was sitting topless in the dark above the water line.
Upon being found, he told his rescuers: “I never lost faith.”
It took rescue teams an additional 21 hours of highly complex and delicate manoeuvres to safely extract him from the mine’s bowels.
On Wednesday morning, Francisco finally emerged from the cave, wrapped in a thermal blanket to thunderous applause from family members and exhausted rescue crews.
He was immediately stabilised by paramedics before being airlifted by helicopter to the Mazatlán General Hospital for urgent medical attention.
Despite the successful rescue operation, the authorities confirmed that at least one person died in the initial incident, as reported by Need To Know.
Emergency teams are continuing their desperate search for one final worker still missing inside the mine.
READ MORE: Leningrad survivor who ate dad’s leather belts to survive siege dies aged 98
