National media in China and Australia are reporting that rescue teams are trying to save about 450 tunnel workers trapped in a flooded tunnel in Northeast China’s Liaoning province after Typhoon Damrey brought torrential rains that left at least 10 people dead and 11 missing.
The workers – more than 300 from the construction team of a high-speed railway project and nearly 100 from a team working on a local water supply project — were trapped at about 9:40 am in a tunnel in the Qiaotou township of Benxi city, China National Radio reported on Monday.
About 20 of the trapped workers were rescued early on Monday as firefighters set up a ropeway to pull out people from the tunnel. Water up to 2m deep had flooded into the tunnel from the nearby Sandaohe and Xihe rivers after torrential rain brought by Typhoon Damrey, the state broadcaster said.
It said more than 110,000 people were left homeless in Xiuyan city, where at least six had died, while some 14,000 homes were destroyed and a total of 447,000 people were evacuated from their homes across the province.
After Typhoons Damrey and Saola hit China from late on Thursday, a third reached the south-eastern province of Zhejiang on Monday and was expected to bring more torrential rain to inland areas this week.
Torrential rain over the past month has caused floods and landslides that killed several hundred people, including at least 79 in Beijing, and forced the evacuation of more than one million across China.
More to follow.
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