Fourteen other workers missing after incident on Hangzhou subway project

The death toll has risen to seven at a construction site in eastern China, where a tunnel collapsed on Saturday.

Fourteen other workers are still missing following the incident in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, in which a 75m section of a subway tunnel collapsed.

Around 50 workers and 11 vehicles were trapped in the rubble following the accident on Saturday afternoon. An investigation is under way and all subway construction works in the city have been suspended for safety checks.

The head of the rescue effort, Wang Guangrong, said that the chances of finding further survivors were slim following flooding at the site from a nearby river. Water levels in the crater had reached 6m, he said.

More than 1,000 police and firefighters have taken part in the rescue effort in Hangzhou, where the first phase of construction of a subway network is in progress.

The £3bn project is set to be completed in 2011 and will run from the north-east of the city to the south. Hangzhou wants to build eight subway lines by 2050.

Topics