(LEAD) 2 trapped miners walk out alive after 9 days

(ATTN: UPDATES with more info in last 3 paras)

BONGHWA, South Korea, Nov. 4 (Yonhap) -- Two miners trapped for more than nine days in a collapsed zinc mine in southeastern South Korea walked out alive Friday, authorities said.

The pair had been stuck in a vertical shaft about 190 meters underground at a zinc mine in the county of Bonghwa, 244 kilometers southeast of Seoul, since the mine collapsed on Oct. 26.

Rescue authorities said the two, both surnamed Park and aged 62 and 56, came out at 11:03 p.m. after 221 hours. They are in stable health condition and have been sent to a hospital.

Rescue workers began a search for the two on Thursday by drilling a hole and inserting an endoscope in an effort to reach the point where the two men were trapped, 190 meters underground.

"My father walked out of the tunnel on his own two feet in good health. It's unbelievable," Park Geun-hyung, a son of the 62-year-old miner said.

pbr@yna.co.kr
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