The first of the 33 miners who had been trapped for 69 days in a copper mine in northern Chile was brought back to the surface 10 minutes after midnight Tuesday.

Florencio Avalos, 31, is the first to reach the surface after spending 69 days of ordeal some 700 meters underground. His father was already at the site to receive him.

The man was welcomed by his family and Chilean President Sebastian Pinera, as well as hundreds of people gathered at the scene to witness the historic moment. Before Avalos, no one ever in history has been trapped deep underground for so long and survived.

Amid a huge sound wave of applause, cheers, sirens, and under camera spotlights, he walked out of the Phoenix capsule, a 54-cm-wide and four-meter-high steel tube built by the Chilean Navy that carried him to the ground through a 662-meter shaft.

His daughter rushed to him and they hugged each other in happy tears.

The miners, who have been trapped since Aug. 5, will be hoisted to the ground one by one and the whole rescue operation will probably last for more than 30 hours.

All the 33 miners were confirmed alive on Aug. 22 and it had been estimated that the rescue would take four months.