November 24, 2008

Hangzhou City subway tunnel collapse claims lives of 21 workers

BEIJING, CHINA

The final death toll from the collapse of a subway tunnel that was under construction in eastern China has reached 21, with all hope gone of rescuing 13 missing workers, say media reports.

After more than three days of effort, searchers were unable to find the 13 missing labourers in the silt-filled tunnel in Hangzhou city, the official Xinhua news agency stated.

It cited rescuers as saying there was “no chance” of finding them alive.

“If the workers are trapped in the middle of the mire, it may take two or three days for rescuers to reach them. If they are at the bottom, it’s hard to say when they can be reached,” Xinhua quoted a local official as saying.

Eight people have already been confirmed dead in the accident, which happened on Saturday, Nov. 15, at a construction site for a subway in Hangzhou.

Altogether 75 metres (250 feet) of a tunnel collapsed, creating a huge crater that also trapped 11 vehicles, including at least one bus.

The victims were mostly rural migrant labourers from the poor eastern province of Anhui who had received little training before they started work on the subway project, according to Xinhua.

One of the survivors also complained that there were fewer supporting rods inside the subway tunnel in Hangzhou than at construction sites in Shanghai, Xinhua said.

China has a dismal work safety record, with thousands of people dying every year in mines, factories and on construction sites, stated the news agency.

DCN News Services

Print | Email | Comment