Climbed Up Holding Hands.. All 31 Workers Survive 'Miracle' from Collapsed Underground Tunnel in the US

[Financial News]  At a construction site in Los Angeles (LA), USA, an underground tunnel collapsed, trapping workers, but all 31 workers, including those who went in to rescue their colleagues, were rescued.

According to CBS News and others on the 9th (local time), the underground tunnel at a water treatment facility construction site in Wilmington, LA, collapsed at around 8 PM.

The collapsed tunnel was a large industrial tunnel with a diameter of 5.5 meters, and it was reported that the workers were working 9.6 km inside from the tunnel entrance.

Due to this accident, the workers working inside could not escape.

Initially, 27 workers were trapped in the tunnel, and 4 nearby went into the accident site to rescue their colleagues.

The LA fire department immediately deployed 100 personnel for the rescue operation, and all workers came to the surface without major injuries.

The workers climbed up the 19-meter-high dirt pile by holding each other's hands and pushing and pulling each other right after the collapse, and they were able to come to the surface using the construction site elevator.

LA City Councilman Tim McOster said, "The workers did not lose their composure," and "They knew exactly what to do."

He added, "They knew well how to make themselves safe," and "It's fortunate that there were great people deep in the tunnel."

LA Mayor Karen Bass expressed gratitude by calling the firefighters who rushed to the scene 'heroes.'

Meanwhile, the cause of the collapse has not been specifically identified, and the accident site is reported to be a $700 million (about 962.2 billion won) water treatment facility under construction by the LA sanitation department, with a project to extend the tunnel over an 11 km section.

newssu@fnnews.com Kim Sooyeon Reporter