• last year
Indian rescuers on Tuesday (Nov 28) pulled out all 41 construction workers trapped inside a collapsed tunnel in the Himalayas for 17 days, hours after drilling through the debris of rock, concrete and earth to reach them, officials said.

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Transcript
00:00 After being stuck for 17 days underground inside a collapsed tunnel in the Himalayas,
00:06 41 construction workers were pulled to safety Tuesday.
00:10 The men, low-wage workers from some of India's poorest states, were given a traditional welcome,
00:19 greeted by government officials and garlanded with marigold flowers.
00:24 The evacuation began more than six hours after rescuers broke through debris in the tunnel,
00:29 which caved in on November 12.
00:32 The men were pulled out on wheeled stretchers through a three-foot-wide steel pipe.
00:36 The entire process was completed in about an hour.
00:40 "Their health is absolutely fine," said rescue team leader Waqeel Hassan.
00:46 Some walked out smiling before being brought to the hospital by ambulance.
00:51 While underground, they were receiving food, water, light, oxygen and medicines through a pipe.
00:57 Rescue efforts hit snags along the way as teams worked to build a tunnel with high-powered drilling machines.
01:03 As the machines failed with still about 50 feet to go, government agencies turned to so-called "rat miners,"
01:09 a group of people skilled at burrowing in tight spaces.
01:13 They drilled through the rock and gravel by hand from inside the evacuation pipe.
01:18 The tunnel is part of a $1.5 billion highway connecting four Hindu pilgrimage sites
01:23 through over a 500-mile network of roads.
01:27 Authorities have not said what caused the cave-in,
01:31 though the region is prone to landslides, earthquakes and floods.
01:36 For more UN videos visit: www.un.org/webcast
01:42 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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