Trapped Francisco Zapata Nájera, 42, spent two weeks underground after a gold mine collapsed in Mexico – but told his rescuers he ‘never lost faith’ when he was finally found
Incredible new footage shows the moment a miner is found after being trapped underground for two weeks.
Francisco Zapata Nájera, 42, was stuck 985ft below the ground after a collapse at the gold mine in the northern Mexican state of Sinaloa – and was finally set free on Wednesday. Footage from the moment he was found shows him standing in waist-deep water as he tells rescuers he ‘never lost faith’ throughout the ordeal.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum confirmed that another miner has been found dead, while another is still missing. A total of 25 workers were inside the mine when a tailings dam – a structure which holds mining waste – burst on March 25.
READ MORE: Miracle rescue as miner found alive after two weeks trapped undergroundREAD MORE: Skydiver dies in horror Easter Monday jump after ‘parachute failed to open’
Zapata was first found on Tuesday, but rescue teams were unable to reach him through heavily flooded areas until 21 hours later. After a 300 hours underwater, divers spotted his torch light, which he had switched on and off to help them find him.
They asked the miner “How are you, how are you?”, before telling him: “your torch helped us a lot”. He was brought to the surface on Wednesday morning, with medics working at the scene to stabilise his condition before he was sent in a Mexican Air Force helicopter to a hospital in Mazatlán.
He was wrapped in a thermal blanket and given an electrically-warmed chair. Hours earlier, President Sheinbaum had said that the rescue teams were waiting for the water to be pumped out to complete the rescue.
After he was rescued, she praised the miner’s “faith and resilience” and hailed the “astounding rescue” by the Mexican army. It’s only the latest mining accident to unfold in Mexico, where campaigners and trade unions have long called for stricter protections and greater supervision of underground sites.
In August 2022, 10 miners died when the El Pinabete coal mine in Coahuila flooded, a disaster that sparked intense controversy by revealing how many Mexican labourers work without essential safety protections or official supervision. Authorities worked for weeks to pump water out of the mine, hoping they could send in rescuers, but were never able to keep water out and stabilize the mine shaft sufficiently.
The miners’ bodies were not recovered. Mexico’s deadliest mining accident took place in February 2006 at the Pasta de Conchos mine in Coahuila, where an explosion killed 65 workers.
