I waited for death and learnt to pray, says miner

FREED Chilean miner Ricardo Villaroel said he and his colleagues were "waiting for death" in the days before they were first discovered by rescue workers.

Speaking moments after he was released from the mine, Mr Villaroel spoke of the fear that gripped the men in their first days underground. But he said the mood lightened once the miners were located, 17 days after they first became trapped.

Speaking to Channel 4 News, Mr Villaroel, the 28th miner to be pulled to safety in Chile, said: "We were waiting for death, our bodies were consuming themselves. I was getting skinnier every day… I was afraid I would never see my child.

"We never talked about cannibalism in those first days, but after they found us, that became a joke comment, just to make us laugh.

"Every day we said to each other that we had to be strong. And if they found us, good. If not, so be it. We could do nothing else but pray. I have never prayed before. I learnt to pray down there. I came close to God.

"I did not surrender to death. I had the strength to keep on working. I did see mates of mine that didn't even get up that first day… that was the most difficult time - to see them with no strength."

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Medical staff said the 33 men who were released after 69 days trapped underground were in better condition than expected. Some of the miners are expected to be discharged to return home.

Speaking from his hospital bed, shift foreman Luis Urza - who led the men throughout their ordeal - said: "You just have to speak the truth and believe in democracy. Everything was voted on . . . We were 33 men, so 16 plus one was a majority."

Chile's president, Sebastian Pinera, said the rescue mission will bring Chile a new level of respect around the world.

The miners and the country will never be the same, he said.

"They have experienced a new life, a rebirth," he said, and so has Chile. "We aren't the same that we were before the collapse on 5 August.

"Today Chile is a country much more unified, stronger and much more respected and loved in the entire world."

President Pinera posed with the miners, most of whom were wearing bathrobes and slippers, for a group photo in the hospital where they are being assessed.

Doctors reported the men were in good health with some expected to be fit enough to be discharged from hospital today. None of the miners is suffering from shock despite their harrowing entrapment, a reflection of the care and supplies sent through a narrow borehole by a team of hundreds during their 69 days trapped underground.

"All of them have been subjected to high levels of stress and most of them have tolerated it in a truly exceptional way," said Dr Jorge Montes, deputy director of the Copiapo Regional Hospital.

"We don't see any problems of a psychological or a medical nature.We were completely surprised," added health minister Jaime Manalich. "We called this a real miracle, because any effort we could have made doesn't explain the health condition these people have today."

Meanwhile, relatives were organising welcome-home parties and trying to hold off an onslaught of demands by those seeking to share in the glory of the rescue that entranced people from around the world and set off celebrations across the South American nation.

The billionaire businessman-turned-politician also promised "radical" changes and tougher safety laws to improve how businesses treat their workers.

"Never again in our country will we permit people to work in conditions so unsafe and inhuman as they worked in the San Jos mine, and in many other places in our country," he said.

After weeks of fear, desperation and finally hope, the miners were pulled out one by one in a capsule that carried them through a tube of solid rock - a 23-hour marathon of rescues.

The men, their eyes hidden behind sunglasses to protect from the sun and glare of lights, emerged to tears and embraces from relatives, and cheers and patriotic chants, as tens of millions of people watched on television around the world.

Many of their relatives are dead-set against it, but they also acknowledged that they probably couldn't stop the miners from going down again.

Mario Medina Mejia, a local geologist. said plenty of Chilean miners have returned underground after close calls, and he compared it to sailors who survive shipwrecks only to ply the waves again.