Thirty-nine miners were faced with a 10-hour vertical climb after they became trapped deep underground in eastern Canada. They got stuck below the Totten mine in Sudbury, Ontario, on Sunday after the lift system was damaged. The miners were said to be unharmed, with access to food and water. Rescue efforts were under way on Monday and the exhausted miners were using harnesses to keep them on the ladders for the 1km (0.6 mile) climb. Local station CTV reported that four miners had reached the surface by the early hours of Tuesday.

Shawn Rideout, chief mine rescue officer from Ontario Mine Rescue, earlier said that the workers had already been in the mineshaft for more than 35 hours before beginning their ascent. He said the ascent could take up to 10 hours for workers to complete but there were rest stops every 100m if they needed to take a break. “Everybody is safe, they’re all in good spirits, we have no reported injuries. Our plan is to get them to the surface in that same form,” he said.(BBC)…[+]