When the 72-hour "golden time" to rescue the trapped miners ran out, most people have prepared for the worst.

On Saturday afternoon, a coal mine located in Yibin City, southwest China's Sichuan Province was flooded, trapping a total of 18 miners. As of Monday afternoon, five of them died, while another 13 remained missing.

Yet the scenario saw an unexpected reversal. On Wednesday morning, all the 13 workers were rescued, 86 hours after the accident started.

The rescue mission that amazed everyone at the site is hailed as a "miracle."

Now the miners are receiving treatment in local hospitals. They are in a stable condition, although most of them are still weak.

With the consent of one of the hospitals and the miners themselves, two of them shared with reporters how they withstood the tough time underground.

Yi Guangming, 53, has worked in the Shanmushu Coal Mine for 34 years. He said he still shudders when thinking of the moment when the accident happened.

"I heard a bang when we were working inside, then I trembled despite myself. We tried to run out, but it's too late. All the mine tunnels were blocked by the huge flood water," Yi recalled.

They all ran back and shelter at a relatively high place yet to be inundated, where there was enough air.

Yi said he has always been confident that they would be rescued, even though they were put in a very dangerous situation as the water level kept rising. He said some of his co-workers began to worry about their parents, wives and kids about two days later.

"I told them not to be desperate. We have to keep calm and be strong, because it's 100 percent that people would try to rescue us."

For them, hunger was the most powerful enemy.

Yi told CGTN that it's fortunate that there was enough water, which was vital to sustain their life. Besides, they also drank their own urine.

"I suggested we collect our own urine in the cups and drank them. We all did it," Yi said. "Water is important to us, but there's no salt in it. Urine is better for us to conserve strength."

Their belts and coals were also among their options.

"We used a knife to cut the belts into pieces, and then swallow them after chewing them up," Yi said.

Equally important, the miners have tried to keep in contact with outside by striking the pipelines beside them.

"When they hit the pipeline, then we hit back. They hit 13 times, and we did the same. That indicates that we are all alive."

In a separate interview, Gou Zhong, who is in charge of the rescue mission, told CGTN that they did this for two purposes.

"One was to make sure there were still signs of life. Then we tried to reassure workers by hinting that we didn't give up on them and would try our best to rescue them," said Gou.

Gou shared another detail.

About two hours before the miners were rescued, the rescue workers saw a plastic pipe floating towards them, with a note inside. Roughly translated, it signaled that the place where the miners stayed were not inundated and they needed help.

Yi recalled that this happened when they saw some light outside.

"I asked one of the colleagues to write the note, and I went to find a pipe which would not sink," he said.

He added that since they got trapped, they had tried several times to escape by holding a pipe in mouth, but all failed.

The worst time came shortly before they were saved. Yi said the gas started to spread in the tunnels.

"Our faces felt very hot," he said.

56-year Liu Guihua was the first one that was rescued. In a special way – he swam to the rescuers by himself.

Gou Zhong said he was astonished to see this.

"Suddenly, we saw a flash of light, and then a person swimming toward us. Our rescuers rushed to him immediately and found that he was Liu Guihua, their team leader. He told us 12 of his colleagues were still inside – all alive but exhausted. He was extremely excited to see us," Gou recalled.

Liu said the water level has declined to a large extent. He was confident to do that.

"I didn't feel that hungry. I drank two big cups of water before adventuring. I first shouted outside, with no response. Then I heard the pumps had stopped working. At that moment, I decided to swim out."

The miners said they felt lucky and also grateful for those that have helped and cared about them. But they hope that the mine could do some improvements in terms of the design of the tunnels to avoid such incidents.