SAN JOSE MINE - A complex, against-all-odds rescue of 33 miners trapped in Chile for more than two months transfixed this nation and the world yesterday, with wild celebrations breaking out at its successful completion.

The ascent of the last of the miners, grizzled leader Luis Urzua, capped nearly 22 hours of euphoric scenes happening every 30 minutes or so, when each of the trapped men was winched individually to the surface through a narrow escape shaft.

It also spelled the end of a record ordeal lived by the men, who had survived 10 nightmarish weeks in a dank and dark tunnel 622 metres below the surface of Chile's northern Atacama desert following an August 5 cave-in.

"They were experiencing a kind of rebirth," President Sebastian Pinera said in a televised address to the nation from the San Jose gold and copper mine after all the miners were freed.

The rescue operation, he affirmed, was "inspiring ... for the whole world".

Pinera hailed Urzua for doing his duty and seeing off all his men before "leaving last like a ship's captain". Pinera and Urzua led a rendition of Chile's national anthem that was echoed across the country.

Everywhere from the mine to the capital Santiago, tears glistened in eyes and on cheeks as the South American nation joined together in an unsurpassed moment of deep joy.

Car horns honked in cities and vuvuzela horns blared.

Thirty-three balloons decked out in Chile's red-white-and-blue colours floated free into the night sky above the mine at the exact moment the last of the 33 trapped miners was brought to the surface.

The depth of feeling electrified the thousands of international journalists covering the rescue, who respectfully stood in silence alongside the miners' families, recording the event, and sharing in it.

Relatives later streamed up a hill where 33 Chilean flags had been planted to give thanks for the "miracle" they had witnessed.

"It's the end of a nightmare," said Silvia Segovia, sister of one of the miners, Victor Segovia.

"It's a new life about to begin," said Belgica Ramirez, the sister-in-law of Mario Gomez, the oldest of the miners saved.

The spectacular rescue was followed by an estimated one billion people around the world, many of them catching live updates on television or the Internet.

Presidents Barack Obama of the US, Nicolas Sarkozy of France, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil as well as Pope Benedict XVI and other dignitaries sent their congratulations during the day.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hailed the "extraordinary triumph of human ingenuity and the strength of the human spirit."

The US space agency NASA, which provided advice on how to sustain the 33 men underground, applauded "the courageous miners" and their rescuers.

The miners were immediately taken to a field hospital at the mine for tests, and around half were flown to a regional hospital in the nearest town of Copiapo.

Health Minister Jaime Manalich said the healthiest could be discharged by today.

Doctors at Copiapo Hospital said the 16 miners at the hospital were generally doing well, though both Mario Sepulveda (the second miner to be winched out) and another miner suffered from silicosis - an incurable, common miners' ailment in which lungs damaged from dust make breathing difficult.

Manalich also said one unnamed miner was receiving "intensive antibiotic treatment" for severe pneumonia, and two would have to have surgery under general anesthesia for "very serious" dental infections.