- Three foreign workers trapped in Thai tunnel confirmed dead
- Rescue efforts hindered by landslip and engineering constraints
- Tunnel collapse linked to Thailand-China high-speed railway project
Thai police have confirmed that three foreign workers who were trapped under a collapsed train tunnel died despite rescue efforts lasting over five days.
As of Thursday, the guys, one from Myanmar and two from China were assumed to be alive.
They were trapped after a section of the tunnel they were digging collapsed on Saturday in Pak Chong district, approximately 200 kilometers (124 miles) northeast of Bangkok.
On Friday, authorities revealed that all three had died, with preliminary examinations indicating that the cause was a shortage of air.
The tunnel, which was under construction as part of the Thailand-China high-speed railway project, collapsed last Saturday at about 23:40 local time (16:40 GMT) due to a landslip.
Rescuers, including officials from the State Railway of Thailand (SRT) and a Chinese disaster response team, had been working around the clock over the previous week hoping to rescue people.
They attempted to pump oxygen into the tunnel to keep the workers alive, but it is unclear whether the tubing they employed reached them.
On Thursday, rescue workers discovered the body of a Burmese truck driver trapped behind a pile of earth and rocks.
The bodies of two Chinese workers, a supervisor and an excavator operator, were discovered at approximately 06:00 local time (00:00 GMT) on Friday, according to the SRT.
According to police, all three bodies were discovered approximately 25 meters from the spot of the tunnel collapse.
According to local sources, rescuers came within a meter of one of the guys on Wednesday. On the same day, they claimed to have heard faint sounds from the males.
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Scanners and sniffer dogs have also found vital signals, giving hope that the men might still be alive.
However, rescue attempts were slowed due to the continued landslip, as falling mud repeatedly covered the holes cut by rescuers to proceed farther into the tunnel.
Thailand’s caretaker Interior Minister, Anutin Charnvirakul, said rescuers were hampered by “engineering constraints.”
He added they had to be careful not to cause other parts of the tunnel to collapse while digging, and the rescuers had to create 3m (9.8ft) high supporting structures for their protection.
“Nobody wanted [this incident] to happen,” he stated in a press conference on Friday.
“We did not only try to save the lives of the victims; we also had to [ensure the safety] of the rescuers and workers,” he informed us.
The bodies of the three guys were removed from the tunnel on Friday.
Thai police have launched an inquiry into the event, and development around the tunnel has been halted.
