Rescuers are hoping to make contact with the 33 miners trapped underground in Chile within hours.

Officials have been inspecting the room where the men will be taken when they return to the surface after being trapped for more than two months.

After they are reunited with their families, the miners will be taken by the Chilean Air Force helicopter to a hospital in Copiapo.

The actual rescue is expected to take 48 hours as the miners are pulled out one by one, a spectacle that has drawn nearly 800 journalists to the isolated San Jose mine in the Chilean desert.

Engineers are carving through the last 128ft (39m) of rock, taking care to keep the T130 drill from jamming or punching through with too much force.

The Plan B drill is poised to win a three-way race to reach the miners with a hole wide enough to accommodate their escape capsule. Two other drills, Plan A and Plan C, had to slow down after repeatedly veering off course.

The breakthrough - to be heralded with a loud siren - will be an emotional milestone in the tent city known as Camp Hope.