One at a time, 33 trapped Chilean miners are being hoisted to freedom as cheering crowds mark their rescue. They have survived for 69 days underground -- longer than any other miners in history.

Mario Sepulveda Espina, the second man to be freed, hugged his wife as soon as he was lifted from the dark mine 625 metres below the surface. He brought a bag of rocks with him, and handed them to rescue workers as souvenirs.

Roughly an hour earlier, Florencio Avalos, 31, was the first member of the group to be saved. Avalos, who is married with two children, was immediately embraced by onlookers.

The miners are being retrieved one at a time via a custom-made capsule, dubbed the Phoenix, which is attached to a cable. It takes about one hour for each journey into the mine and back. The third rescued miner, Juan Illanes, reached the surface before 3 a.m. local time.

The entire rescue operation is expected to last until late Wednesday.

The first paramedic stepped into the capsule at around 11:15 p.m. local time Tuesday and was lowered into the mine to help rescue the men, who have been trapped beneath the surface since Aug. 5.

The group's nine-week ordeal has captured the world's attention, attracting scores of journalists to the gold and copper mine in northern Chile.

Many of the miners' family members have held vigil at nearby "Camp Hope" since hearing on Aug. 22 that the 33 men had survived the rock collapse 17 days earlier.

Chile's President Sebastian Pinera and the country's first lady arrived at the mine hours ahead of the first rescue attempt, meeting other top government officials who had gathered at the site.

"We made a promise to never surrender, and we kept it," Pinera said at about 5:45 p.m. local time, before two rescue workers were taken down to prepare the trapped miners for their rescue.

A one-minute alarm is sounding each time a miner reaches the surface, and up to three of his family members are permitted to meet with him before he is whisked off to consult with nearby doctors.

Among other things, there are worries that some of the miners may experience nausea or faint during the trip to the surface.

CTV's medical expert Dr. Marla Shapiro said all of the miners will undergo extensive health checks.

"There's the brief immediate inspection on site, as the miners come out. But when they go to hospital they'll all be in the ICU," she said late Tuesday night. "They'll go through a series of blood tests looking at their electrolytes, sodium, potassium, their kidney function, their liver function. We know they've had accelerated bone loss because they've been in the dark."

A field hospital has been set up at the surface where the men are to be examined by a team of doctors. Those requiring special attention will then be flown by helicopter to a military base in Copiapo, Chile.

Meanwhile, the remaining miners are preparing for the ride of their lives as rescuers prepare to retrieve them one by one. They are currently on a liquid diet high in potassium and other minerals often given to starvation victims to prevent cardiac arrest.

Last week, officials said they planned to bring the healthiest in the group to the surface first, with the weakest miners being rescued last.

In preparation for the first rescue attempt, crews had managed to poke an escape shaft through to the miners, and had been reinforcing the tunnel and performing test runs in recent days before trying to bring the men to the surface.

"We are really working as fast as possible to get these miners out," Mining Minister Laurence Golborne told reporters earlier on Tuesday.

"There is no need to try to start guessing what could go wrong. We have done that job," Golborne said. "We have hundreds of different contingencies."

Once they climb into the capsule, which resembles a cylindrical metal cage, the miners are strapped in and a winch begins to raise them to the surface.

A remote camera is trained on the miner's face while in the capsule, and he is in radio contact so that doctors and engineers at the surface can closely monitor his progress.

With files from The Associated Press