A miner was miraculously rescued from a flooded cave by the Mexican army two weeks after the tunnel collapsed.
Francisco Zapata Nájera, 42, had been buried some 985ft underground when disaster struck at a gold mine in the northern state of Sinaloa.
An embankment collapse left him stranded in darkness, with rising water threatening his life.
Extraordinary footage of the moment he was found shows the exhausted miner standing in waist-deep water, calmly speaking to rescuers as they finally reached him.
Despite the terrifying ordeal, Zapata revealed he had clung to hope throughout.
The incident unfolded on March 25 when a tailings dam - used to store mining waste - suddently burst, trapping workers inside.
Of the 25 miners underground at the time, 21 managed to escape, but four were left behind.
In the days that followed, rescuers worker tirelessly in dangerous conditions.
Finally, on Wednesday, Zapata emerged from the depths - wrapped in a thermal blanket and transported on an electric cart.
José Alejandro Cástulo was pulled out alive after five days, while another miner tragically died.
It then took a further eight days before Zapata was located, following an intense search lasting more than 300 hours.
Divers eventually detected a faint signal in the darkness - the blinking of a torch.
Zapata had been switching it on and off in a desperate bid to be seen.
As they approached him, rescuers called out: 'How are you, how are you?'
Once they confirmed they were specialised military divers, they told him: 'your torchlight helped us a lot'.
'It guided us,' one of the divers added.
Zapata, remarkably composed, replied: 'I didn't lose faith, I didn't lose faith'.
But the rescue was far from over. Flooded tunnels meant he could not be brought out immediately.
Instead, divers were forced to leave him behind temporarily, supplying him with with water, tins of tuna, and energy bars, along with assaurances they would return.
It would take another 20 greulling hours of pumping water from the mine before conditions were safe enough to extract him.
Finally, on Wednesday, Zapata emerged from the depths - wrapped in a thermal blanket and transported on an electric cart - before being airlifted to hospital.
There, he was reunited with his family in an emotional moment.
Doctors confirmed he was frail but stable and would receive further treatment.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum hailed both the army's efforts and Zapata's extraordinary endurance, saying his faith and resilience had made the 'astounding rescue' possible.
Meanwhile, the search continues for the final missing miner, as hopes remain that more lives may yet be saved from the disaster.