Copiapo:
The 33 men trapped underground in a mine in northern Chile and their relatives for the first time held a video-conference on Saturday, in the wake of the first month anniversary of their ordeal.
The relatives of the miners were delighted to be able to talk to their loved ones.
On August 5, a landslide at the gold and copper mine in the Atacama desert caused a tunnel to collapse and entombed the men more than 2,200 feet (67.6 metres) below ground.
It took 17 days for the rescuers to make their first contact with the miners and find out they were all alive and well.
Until now the trapped miners, their relatives and authorities in charge of their rescue have kept in contact through letter, telephone and recorded video messages.
On Saturday both sides could for the first time talk and see each other in real time.
Also, four former rugby players from Uruguay who survived more than two months of isolation in the snow-covered Andes back in 1972 talked to the miners and urged them to stay strong.
The four were among 16 Uruguayans who survived a plane crash and waited 72 days to be rescued.
Some were forced to eat the flesh of friends killed in the crash to stay alive. Their story inspired the book and movie "Alive."
One of them, Ramon Sabella, spoke by video-conference to Luis Urzua, who is unofficially the leader of the miners, and said that by Christmas they would all be out celebrating with their families.
According to the psychologists treating the group, the miners are aware that their rescue will take a long time but they don't know exactly how long.
Doctors, psychologists, authorities and relatives have avoided - on purpose - mentioning how many weeks or months the rescue will take in any communication they have had with the trapped miners.
Engineers estimated that digging a tunnel big enough to extract the miners could take up to four months if everything goes according to plan.
The relatives of the miners were delighted to be able to talk to their loved ones.
On August 5, a landslide at the gold and copper mine in the Atacama desert caused a tunnel to collapse and entombed the men more than 2,200 feet (67.6 metres) below ground.
It took 17 days for the rescuers to make their first contact with the miners and find out they were all alive and well.
Until now the trapped miners, their relatives and authorities in charge of their rescue have kept in contact through letter, telephone and recorded video messages.
On Saturday both sides could for the first time talk and see each other in real time.
Also, four former rugby players from Uruguay who survived more than two months of isolation in the snow-covered Andes back in 1972 talked to the miners and urged them to stay strong.
The four were among 16 Uruguayans who survived a plane crash and waited 72 days to be rescued.
Some were forced to eat the flesh of friends killed in the crash to stay alive. Their story inspired the book and movie "Alive."
One of them, Ramon Sabella, spoke by video-conference to Luis Urzua, who is unofficially the leader of the miners, and said that by Christmas they would all be out celebrating with their families.
According to the psychologists treating the group, the miners are aware that their rescue will take a long time but they don't know exactly how long.
Doctors, psychologists, authorities and relatives have avoided - on purpose - mentioning how many weeks or months the rescue will take in any communication they have had with the trapped miners.
Engineers estimated that digging a tunnel big enough to extract the miners could take up to four months if everything goes according to plan.
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