Rescuers search for eight trapped in Telangana tunnel collapse

Search teams in southern India were working Sunday to rescue eight workers believed to be trapped in an irrigation tunnel that collapsed during construction, officials said.

The accident occurred Saturday in the state of Telangana after a sudden inflow of water and soil caused a part of the tunnel to cave in.

Workers positioned near a boring machine managed to escape but another eight engineers and labourers near the entrance were believed to be stuck inside, the state’s ruling Congress party said in a statement on X.

“This is an unfortunate incident, but we are committed to bringing them out safely,” state irrigation minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy told reporters, adding that a coordinated search and rescue effort was underway.

India’s national disaster response force joined rescue efforts on Saturday night, with reports saying the tunnel’s ventilation system remained functional, which ensured the supply of oxygen to the trapped workers.
Media reports said that water needed to be pumped out and debris cleared before rescue teams could help locate and evacuate the trapped workers.

Accidents on large infrastructure construction sites are common in India.

In 2023, 41 Indian workers were rescued after a marathon 17-day engineering rescue operation helped pull them out of a partly collapsed Himalayan road tunnel in the northern state of Uttarakhand.