Thai authorities have confirmed the deaths of three foreign workers who were trapped in a collapsed rail tunnel for five days despite extensive rescue efforts. BBC According to reports, the victims, including two Chinese nationals and a Myanmar national, were expected to be alive till Thursday. However, on Friday, officials announced that all three had died. Officials said the three bodies were found about 25 meters from the site of the tunnel collapse.
The victims have been identified as Chinese project supervisor Hu Xiang Min, Chinese backhoe driver Dong Chinlin, and a Myanmar truck driver whose identity has not yet been confirmed. Independent According to the report, officials said on Friday that preliminary investigations suggested that suffocation due to lack of oxygen was the likely cause of death.
The tunnel, under construction as part of the Thailand-China high-speed railway project, collapsed due to a landslide at around 23:40 local time (16:40 GMT) last Saturday. To rescue the trapped workers, rescue teams from the State Railway of Thailand (SRT) and a special Chinese disaster response team worked non-stop for more than a week. They tried to pump oxygen into the tunnel to keep the workers alive, but it is unclear whether the tubes they used reached the workers.
Advanced scanners and trained sniffer dogs had also detected some mild vital signs, suggesting that the trapped workers were still alive. However, the rescue operation was slow due to the dangerous conditions caused by the ongoing landslide. Rescue workers faced a constant struggle as falling debris and dirt continuously filled the holes they had painstakingly dug, blocking their path. The rescue team also had to be extremely careful while digging so that it does not cause other parts of the tunnel to collapse.
Thailand’s acting Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said rescue efforts were limited because of challenging engineering conditions.
“Nobody wanted this incident to happen,” he said at a news conference on Friday. “Not only did we try to save the lives of the victims, but we also had to ensure the safety of the rescue workers and workers.”
The state railway company expressed its condolences to the families of the victims and said it was “ready to assist the families of the deceased.”
Following this tragic incident, Thai authorities have launched a comprehensive investigation into the tunnel collapse incident. In the meantime, all construction work around the tunnel has been temporarily halted.
