Rescue efforts continue into sixth day after landslide traps 40 workers in India

Rescue efforts have entered into a sixth day after a road tunnel collapse in northern India, trapping 40 people.

Teams are drilling with a new machine that has covered a stretch of 24 metres so far, Devendra Patwal, a disaster management official, said.

It may require up to 60 metres to enable the trapped workers' escape, but Patwal said rescuers hoped to complete the drilling by Friday night and create an escape tunnel of pipes welded together.

The construction workers have been trapped since Sunday when a landslide in the state of Uttarakhand caused a portion of the 4.5-kilometre tunnel they were building to collapse about 200 metres from the entrance.

The tunnel is part of the Chardham all-weather road, a flagship federal project connecting various Hindu pilgrimage sites.

Diggers are excavating the rubble-filled tunnel to reach the workers, as efforts to rescue the men continue into the sixth day

Nuts, roasted chickpeas, popcorn and medicine are being sent to them through a pipe every two hours.

Some of the workers felt fever and body aches earlier in the week, but there has been no deterioration in their condition, officials have said.

About 200 disaster relief personnel have been at the site using drilling equipment and excavators in the rescue operation, with the plan to push 80-centimetre-wide steel pipes through the clearing to allow for workers to crawl through.

State officials have contacted Thai experts who helped rescue a youth soccer team trapped in a cave in Thailand in 2018, state government administrator Gaurav Singh said.

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