New Delhi, Nov. 28, (dpa/GNA) – More than two weeks following the partial collapse of a tunnel in the Himalayas, rescue workers extricated on Tuesday evening all of the trapped 41 workers through a 90-centimetre-wide pipe.
The men, who were brought out on rolling stretchers after 17 days underground, are doing well under the circumstances, said a civil protection employee. The pipe used to rescue them had previously been painstakingly drilled through the rubble.
Their families, who had hoped so much for this moment, were waiting outside the tunnel. Ambulances were to take the workers to a hospital for a health check.
The days and even hours leading up to it were characterized by ups and downs, as officials and journalists kept talking about an imminent rescue.
But the rescue efforts were faced with a series of setbacks. In the end, all the large machines failed, and specialized miners, together with the army, had to overcome the last few metres of rubble by hand using the smallest equipment.
This was not easy, as extreme caution was required to prevent further collapses caused by vibrations during drilling.
During the rescue work, the trapped workers were supplied with oxygen, water, food and medication via narrow pipes and were able to be in contact with the rescue workers and their relatives via a camera, made available last week.
The 4.5-kilometre-long motorway tunnel, which was currently under construction, partially collapsed on November 12 after a landslide. The workers were trapped behind tons of rock around 200 metres from the entrance.
The site of the accident is near the small town of Uttarkashi in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, a popular tourist region with many Hindu temples. The tunnel was intended to improve transport links there.
GNA