Rescuers found three more bodies from a collapsed subway tunnel
in Beijing on Saturday, but they have been unable to pull them out
due to the complicated situation underground.
The three bodies were all heavily pressed upon by collapsed
concrete and meanwhile, the space beneath the ground which rescuers
can move about is very narrow. Therefore, it is difficult to pull
the bodies out.
In addition, collapse may occur anytime in the tunnel, rescuers
said.
Earlier report said the collapsed section of the tunnel covers
an area of about 20 square meters and is about 11 meters
underground.
Rescuers and more than 10 experts have met many times to study
different rescue plans.
At the same time, rescuers are still searching for the remaining
two workers, who have been feared dead.
The collapse happened at 9:30 AM on Wednesday at a construction
site for the No.10 Subway Line in Haidian Nanlu Road between the
third and fourth northern ring roads in the city's Haidian
District.
Six workers were buried underground after the accident, of whom
one came from central China's Henan Province and the other five from
southwestern Sichuan Province.
Rescuers recovered a worker's body Friday afternoon after more
than 50 hours of excavation. The victim was confirmed to be
20-year-old Li Peng from Henan.
Family members of the six workers are in Beijing now to handle
the aftermath.
Local police have detained 10 people over the subway cave-in,
including the work supervisor and tunnel designers but the labor
contractor, Zhou Yongfu, is reported to have fled.
The construction company -- China Railway 12th Bureau Group
Co.-- refused to report the accident to municipal authorities when
the collapse occurred, instead mounting its own operation to rescue
the trapped workers.
In an attempted cover-up, project managers ordered all the
workers to stay at the construction site and told them not to talk
to media and police. They confiscated mobile phones from
workers.
The Beijing municipal authority finally learned of the accident
at 5:00 PM on Wednesday, almost eight hours after the collapse
occurred, after a worker from Henan called Henan police.
Municipal government officials told Xinhua on Friday that rescue
work had been delayed by the company's cover-up attempts and the
complicated underground conditions.
(Xinhua News Agency April 1, 2007)
