Rescuers have managed to rescue the first eight of 41 construction workers trapped after a tunnel collapsed in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. International media reported this on Tuesday. The group of construction workers became trapped there on November 12 when part of the tunnel collapsed. Authorities say it could take hours before all the men are rescued.
The construction workers are picked up one by one via a pipe with a diameter of about 90 centimeters, which is inserted through the rubble of the collapsed tunnel. Earlier on Tuesday it was announced that drilling work for this pipe had been completed, allowing the final section of pipe to be installed and the rescue operation to begin. The rescued men are wheeled out on stretchers and taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital.
The 41 construction workers were unharmed when the road tunnel collapsed, but were trapped in a space eight meters high and two kilometers long. Over the past seventeen days, the group has received food, water and medicine through a small tube.