Rescuers lifted three miners to the ground Thursday, nine days after they were trapped in flooded mine shafts in Hunan Province.

Rescuers found the three survivors at 8:14 a.m. and helped them out of the shaft at 9:05 a.m..

The three were very weak, but one of them could talk in a barely audible voice, rescuers said.

The survivors have been taken to hospital.

Two miners were killed in the accident and rescuers are still searching for eight others who are still missing.

The flooding happened on July 20 when water gushed into a mining zone in Huayuan County of Xiangxi Tujia-Miao Autonomous Prefecture.