Australian Miners Rescued After Two Weeks Underground

Two Australian miners who survived for two weeks in a kennel-size cage trapped a kilometer (3,000 feet) underground walked out of the Beaconsfield Gold Mine on Tuesday and punched the air, freed by rescue crews drilling round-the-clock by hand.

Hundreds of well-wishers who gathered at the mine erupted in cheers when Brant Webb, 37, and Todd Russell, 34, emerged, their head torches glowing in the pre-dawn light - but joy turned to grief later in the day as mourners gathered to bury a third miner who died in the accident.

"There's not many things in life that take us through so many emotions at the same time," said Graham Mulligan, spokesman for a Christian motorcycle club that escorted Larry Knight's coffin from the church to a nearby cemetery. "This whole ordeal has taken us from horror to shock, grief, sadness, joy and happiness and then back to sadness again."

Television networks cut live to the news that the men - who were buried April 25 after an earthquake trapped their safety cage under tons of rock - had been saved.

A fire engine drove with its siren wailing through Beaconsfield, a town in the southern state of Tasmania. A church bell not used since the end of World War II rang out in celebration. Prime Minister John Howard hailed the rescue as "a wonderful demonstration of Australian mateship."

The freed miners bear-hugged family and friends before clambering into two ambulances, still laughing and joking. Before going, they removed their identity tags from the wall outside the elevator - a standard safety measure carried out by all miners when they finish a shift.

They handed out small cards that read: "The Great Escape. To all who have helped and supported us and our families, we cannot wait to shake your hand." By Tuesday night, Russell had recovered enough from the ordeal to go for a bourbon and Coke at his local pub.

Wearing a pink T-shirt and limping slightly, he exchanged high fives with friends and chatted with them before sitting down to talk to a television executive.

Hours earlier, he attended the funeral of 44-year-old Knight, which had been delayed by the miner's family in hopes his trapped colleagues could attend. Hundreds of Beaconsfield residents went to the service, but it was not immediately clear if Webb was among them.

The dramatic rescue captivated the nation.

Teams of miners bored through more than 13 meters (45 feet) of rock over the past week with a giant drilling machine to reach the men. But cutting the final sections of the escape tunnel was slow and difficult, as the men used hand tools to avoid causing a cave-in.

For 300 hours, the two miners had huddled in the 1.2-meter (4-foot) -tall cage until rescuers broke through the last crust of rock, five times harder than concrete. Rescuers could only work one at a time on their backs in the cramped tunnel, wielding hand-held pneumatic drills, diamond-tipped chain saws and jackhammers as heavy as 40 kilograms (88 pounds).

Rescuer Glen Burns said miners finally broke through using chisels to open up a crack wide enough to see through. "And we just made eye contact, that was first, and then made that bit bigger and then shook their hands," he said.

Doctors who examined the men said they lost weight but were in good physical shape.

Seventeen men were working the night shift when the small quake sent tremors through the century-old mine. Fourteen men made it safely to the surface, but Webb, Russell and Knight had been working deep in the belly of the mine repairing a tunnel.

Webb and Russell survived because a huge slab of rock landed on their safety cage, forming a roof that kept them from being crushed. For five days they lived on a single cereal bar and water they licked from rocks, until rescue crews with thermal heat sensors detected them April 30.

The rescue team forced a narrow pipe through a hole drilled through the rock and pushed through supplies including water, vitamins and fresh clothing. Comforts such as iPods, an inflatable mattress, egg and chicken sandwiches and even ice pops followed.