Distraught wives are praying for a miracle after a gas explosion trapped 22 miners underground in Chongqing and left one confirmed dead.
Dai Longcao said she had not been able to eat since the Sanhuiyi Coal Mine was ripped apart by a massive blast on Tuesday.
'I held my children's hands and walked three hours along the mountain path to the coal mine,' said the 42-year-old woman. China News Service reported. 'I took off immediately after I heard the news, and didn't even get a minute to let my parents know what happened.'
As her husband's meagre salary provides for the whole family, the housewife said she feared for the future of her son and daughter.
Her fears were shared by a pair of sisters whose spouses were also their families' only breadwinners. Xia Xingrong and Xia Xingbi have their fingers crossed for their missing husbands.
'If anything happened we'd be helpless,' they said.