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| Tuesday, 10 August 2004 |
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India rescues 20 workers trapped in tunnel CHANDIGARH, India, Monday (Reuters) Relief teams cut through silt and debris on Monday and rescued 20 workers who had been trapped in a tunnel for nearly 24 hours after a torrential downpour in a remote Indian Himalayan region. The construction workers, building a tunnel for a power project, were trapped underground when the exit was blocked following a storm on Sunday in Kullu district in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh, some 500 km (300 miles) north of New Delhi. "All 20 people have been saved as there was plenty of oxygen in the kilometre-long tunnel," A.K. Puri, director general of police, told Reuters. "Rescue officials and locals used excavation machinery to dig through the mouth of the tunnel. Last night's rain made the excavation work easier." No other details were available. Dozens of huts where the mostly migrant labourers lived in Barshaini village were washed away after the cloudburst which brought down tonnes of slush and boulders. "The river changed course suddenly due to the flash flood and the water level rose by six metres, blocking the tunnel and damaging roads and machinery in the area," R.D. Nazeen, deputy commissioner at Kullu, told Reuters. The worst floods in 15 years have hit South Asia over the past few weeks, making millions of people homeless and killing more than 1,700, mostly in Bangladesh and eastern India. After lashing the eastern part of the subcontinent, the monsoon rains moved westwards last week to wreak havoc in the Indian states of Gujarat, Punjab and Haryana. |
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