4-day rescue mission ends in relief for trapped workers

Relatives of 12 workers trapped in a tunnel collapse were overwhelmed with relief when rescuers broke through and brought out the eleven men and one woman buried for nearly five days at the Da Dang-Da Chomo Hydropower Plant in Lam Dong Province. 

A worker being moved out of the collapsed tunnel on December 19 afternoon.

The 12 were taken to Lam Dong General Hospital for medical checks after their ordeal.

The workers said they were terrified and thought they had been buried alive, 500 metres from the tunnel mouth. They were trapped between a wall of hard rock, and metres-thick debris from the collapse.

One of the trapped workers, Pham Viet Lanh, said, "I didn't think I would survive. When the tunnel collapsed, we were in complete darkness. Then oxygen started to run out, making it hard to breath. Everybody was panicking, but then we heard voices from outside and we calmed down and encouraged each other."

Another worker, Nguyen Tien Doan, said his mind was clear on the first day, but his confidence diminished as the days unfolded.

"We cried when we heard the voices of the rescue team," he said.

Workers are being treated at Lam Dong General Hospital

Two rescue tunnels were dug around the debris, one by a team from the Vietnam National Coal and Mineral Industries Group and the other by the army. Both teams had problems with the hard rock and unstable strata, and could only move slowly for fear of triggering another cave-in.

Other teams used mechanical drills to drive through shafts from three angles, with a fourth approaching from the end of the tunnel, which allowed rescuers to get food , water and messages to the trapped workers, and to insert a pump to reduce the level of ground water that began flooding their space.

The army team had dug 14 metres of an expected 30 metre shaft when it broke through to a cavity that gave them a clear approach to the workers.

Rescue forces in the collapsed tunnel

The drama began at 7am on December 16, when the team digging the tunnel became trapped after a section of tunnel behind them collapsed, 500 metres away from the entrance. Other workers managed to escape, but the team at the face of the tunnel, which was nearing its 700-metre design length, was trapped.

More than 300 local police, volunteers and fight fighters were mobilised to the scene.

The VND475 trillion Da Dang-Da Chromo Hydropower Plant will, on completion, provide 110 million kWh a year of energy to the local region.