Rescue effort continue in flooded railway tunnel
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-01-28 07:13

Rescuers are making emergency measures to hold back leaked water while going on with their efforts to search for 11 workers trapped in a flooded railway tunnel in central China's Hubei Province, official said on Friday.

Rescuers are going all out to pump water out of the tunnel which has been flooded from Tuesday, and a 10-member expert panel remains on the scene to give guidance to the rescue effort, according to the rescue headquarters.

The endeavor for water pumping has been impeded owing to a new leakage of water inside the tunnel, with only 1.3-meter deep water pumped out from the tunnel during a 24-hour period from 3:00 p.m. Thursday to early Friday.

There is a faint hope for the trapped workers to survive as they have been blocked in the tunnel for 150 hours in a row since the construction site in Lichuan County was submerged at 10:50 a.m. last Saturday, noted sources with the Ministry of Railways.

The 164 rescuers at the site are working on rotation at the accident site.

Of the 14 workers at the scene when water began flooding the tunnel, three escaped, and they said they were some three km away from the entrance of the tunnel when the mishap occurred.

The 7,879-m tunnel is a major part of the rail route from the city of Yichang in Hubei Province to Wanzhou city of the neighboring Chongqing municipality.