On Sunday, Rescue workers rescued 11 people who had been trapped hundreds of meters below ground in a gold mine in China's Shandong province.

They were among the 22 mine workers caught in a blast in the Hushan mine in Qixia on January 10. The Hushan mine is a major gold-producing region.

The first man to be brought to the surface at around 11 a.m. and was in an "extremely weak" condition, according to a post on state media CCTV's Weibo microblogging site.

Video footage showed rescuers lifting him out of the mine shaft with a black blindfold across his eyes. He was covered in a blanket before being carried away by rescue workers and taken to the hospital for further treatment.

After a few hours, another three miners were rescued from a different section of the mine. Three more were later pulled to safety from the same section. Rescue of the rest followed shortly after.

They belonged a group of 10 miners who had been in contact with rescue teams, while the first man was trapped in a different part of the mine.

On Thursday, officials warned it could take another two weeks or more to clear "severe blockages" before shafts could be drilled to reach the 10 men.

But rescuers cleared an air ventilation shaft on Sunday that helped them to be freed earlier than expected.

Rescue teams have had no contact with the other 11 miners, state news agency Xinhua reported last week. One miner is known to have died from head injuries.

Authorities have detained the mine's managers because they waited more than a day to report the explosion.