Novoshakhtinsk, Russia ? While anxious and weeping relatives waited behind police cordons, rescuers brought to the surface 33 exhausted coal miners who had spent nearly two days trapped deep underground at a southern Russian mine.

But the fate of 13 other miners remained unknown. Emergency workers were unable to locate their position inside the mine, where flooding trapped the men about a half-mile down.

There was hope for the missing men, according to the region’s governor, who said the larger group of miners heard signals from the 13 elsewhere in the mine before their rescue.

The rescued miners — their faces blackened with coal dust and their clothing soaked after spending hours in knee-or waist-high water — emerged tired but relieved, after being lifted to the surface in a small elevator cage used for shaft inspections.

Relatives, many pleading with authorities to give them information, watched from behind police cordons while the first of the miners shuffled out or were carried on stretchers to waiting ambulances.

“How can I not hope?” said Nadezhda Churbanova, waiting for word on her husband, who turned out was among the rescued. “We have two children, we have been together for 22 years. How can I not hope?”

As the miners and rescuers emerged, one happily waved his mining helmet over his head and others refused to be put on stretchers. One broke free and went to a rescue worker to shake hands. “Thanks, folks, for saving us. We are fine now,” he said.

All of the rescued miners were taken to Hospital No. 1 of Novoshakhtinsk, where the chief doctor Sergei Bezus said they were suffering from exposure, shock and exhaustion.

The miners were working some 2,625 feet in the Zapadnaya mine Thursday when water from a subterranean lake leaked into a shaft above them, blocking their way to the surface, said Col. Viktor Shkareda, head of the emergency department.

A miner waves after being brought to the surface by rescue workers at the Zapadnaya mine in Novoshakhtinsk, southern Russia. Rescue workers on Saturday began lifting to the surface 46 miners trapped for nearly two days in a flooded mine shaft in southern Russia.