Cargill salt mine: 17 workers rescued from 900 feet below ground in New York

The men were rescued after hours by a crane on loan from the New York Fire Department

Rescuers managed to lift all 17 workers from the mine on Thursday (ITHACA, N.Y. FIRE DEPARTMENT)

Emergency teams have rescued 17 salt mine workers who were trapped in a lift 900 feet below ground for hours in New York state.

Rescuers arrived on the scene with mine officials and were able to free four miners at first, before getting the 13 other miners out of the lift via a crane from the Ithaca branch of the New York Fire Department.

Tompkins County Emergency Management officials said the miners had been trapped since 11:40pm Wednesday night at the Cargill Salt Mine in Lansing - about 40 miles outside Syracuse in central New York state.

"Extremely relieved and happy to say that they're out,“ Cargill mine manager Shawn Wilczynski said during a news conference, as reported by Fox News.

Mr Wilczynski said the men were cold but weren't injured and were in good spirits. The names of the men were not immediately released.

Cargill's website says the mine, which lies just north of Ithaca, has been in operation since 1922. It annually processes about two million tons of road salt that is shipped throughout north-east US.

A statement from Tompkins County Emergency Management said: “Efforts are focused on ensuring the integrity of the system and putting in place procedures to evacuate the people from the elevator.”