In a dramatic rescue operation, four miners trapped inside a collapsed gypsum mine in east China for over a month were rescued today, state media reported.

The gypsum mine in east China's Shandong province collapsed on Christmas Day, killing one and leaving 17 miners missing, including the four survivors, who were lifted to safety today after spending 36 days trapped inside the mine.

State-run CCTV showed dramatic footage of a miner being lifted to the surface and then taken to the hospital.

Eleven miners had been rescued earlier. Over 400 rescue and emergency workers participated in the operation spread over a month. The workers tunnelled down the collapsed mine, slowly, so that the mine does not cave in completely.

Footage from inside the mine earlier showed the four men sitting together with one of them was saying: "I feel relieved and secure now. We will remember you (rescuers) forever."

The company chairman Ma Congbo, committed suicide a few days after the accident by throwing himself into the mine well. China's mines are considered some of the deadliest in the world and have a long history of industrial accidents.

Twenty-one workers were killed in November last year when a fire engulfed a state-owned coal mine in China's northeast Heilongjiang province.

In August last year, 10 people were killed in two separate accidents at coal mines in China. In October, one person was killed in Shandong province.