Subway tunnel collapses in China leaving at least one dead

Nov 16 2008

ONE person died and at least 18 were missing last night after a half-built subway tunnel collapsed and 11 vehicles plunged into the massive crater.

Rescue teams called in scuba divers as water from a nearby river flooded the 65ft-wide hole.

Construction workers, who are building a £3billion subway system in Hangzhou, China, leapt for their lives as the ground fell in.

Cars and a bus disappeared into the chasm but all 27 people on the bus got out safely. Most of the missing are believed to be workers but it was not known how many vanished underground.

Nineteen people were taken to hospital, some with fractures.

Only one was said to be in a lifethreatening condition last night as about 2000 rescuers struggled to pump out the water .

Five scuba divers were searching inside the vehicles.

Workers released from hospital said that they had seen colleagues who had moved too slowly buried under a tide of mud.