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HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — An official in Vietnam says rescuers have drilled a hole through a collapsed tunnel and are communicating with 12 trapped workers who say they're OK.
The workers became trapped Tuesday in the central part of the country when the tunnel at a hydropower plant collapsed.
The local official in Lam Dong province says rescuers drilled a tube hole through the 118-foot-long collapsed section of the tunnel Tuesday night, more than 10 hours after the incident, to pump in oxygen and food to the workers.
He says the workers have been able to communicate with the rescuers through the tube.
He says an initial investigation showed that the weak geological structure of the area and rains over the past few days could have caused parts of the tunnel to cave in.
The section that collapsed is some 984 feet from the entrance of the tunnel. The workers were putting concrete on the tunnel's dome when it tumbled. About 20 of them escaped unhurt.
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