The rescuers found the note, which told them where the men were, after they broke through rock on Wednesday morning after tirelessly drilling and tunnelling for days.

The group of 13 miners, one of which died during the ordeal and one which is still missing after going off to find a way out, were buried 1000 metres below the surface after a the mine was inundated by an underground lake.

The men huddled in an air pocket near the pit face to escape the icy water.

"When we saw the rescuers, that was like the appearance of Christ before the people," said Vasily Avdeyev, the mine director who was on his first day in the job when the accident happened, the Canberra Times reported.

"We had nothing to eat. I delivered a speech saying that a 20-day fast has not ever hurt anyone and it is good for the health," the mine director said.

Russian news reports said the rescued workers appeared in better health than the group of 33 rescued 36 hours after the flood. Despite suffering from hunger, exposure and fatigue most of the men had insisted on walking more than two kilometres through cramped shafts and emergency tunnels to reach the surface.

Meanwhile, it was terrible news from Russia’s far east where a sixth miner died on Thursday from injuries in Wednesday’s coal mine explosion. Five miners had already been killed instantly in the explosion, Dow Jones reported.

According to the news agency, the explosion at the Tsentralnaya mine, considered one of the most dangerous in the region, was blamed on lax safety practices.