India tunnel collapse: All workers rescued after group trapped for more than two weeks in Uttarakhand
All 41 workers have been rescued from a collapsed tunnel in India after being trapped for more than two weeks.
“I am completely happy and relieved,” India’s highways minister, Nitin Gadkari, said as he praised rescue workers for their efforts.
A crowd of locals shouted slogans of “Bharat Mata ki Jai,” or “Long live mother India,” and set off firecrackers as the trapped workers emerged from the collapsed tunnel in India’s Himalayan state of Uttarakhand.
Follow latest: Reaction as workers rescued from tunnel in India
Pushkar Singh Dhami, the top elected official in the state, hung a garland of marigold flowers around the neck of the first worker as he emerged after 17 days.
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First video of rescued worker in India
The chief minister of the state of Uttarakhand (right), greeting a rescued worker
Pic:Uttarakhand State Department/AP
Pic:Uttarakhand State Department/AP
‘An amazing example of humanity and teamwork’
India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, praised the “courage and patience” of the workers and their families, as well as those involved in the rescue.
“It is a matter of great satisfaction that after a long wait, these friends of ours will now meet their loved ones,” he wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
“I also salute the spirit of all the people associated with this rescue operation. Everyone involved in this mission has set an amazing example of humanity and teamwork.”
India’s president, Droupadi Murmu, said she felt “relieved and happy” at the news.
“The nation salutes their resilience and remains grateful to them for building critical infrastructure, even at great personal risk, far away from their homes,” she wrote in a post on X.
“I congratulate the teams and all experts who have acted with incredible grit and determination to perform one of the most difficult rescue missions in history.”
Ambulances were lined up at the mouth of the tunnel to take the men to a hospital about 19 miles (30km) away for check-ups.
Wakil Hassan, a rescue team leader, described the condition of the workers as “first-class and absolutely fine… just
like yours or mine”.
How the rescue operation played out
The labourers became stuck after a highway tunnel in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand collapsed earlier this month.
A graphic showing how the workers became trapped in the tunnel in India
The tunnel is part of the £1.2bn Char Dham highway, being built to connect four Hindu pilgrimage sites through a 500-mile network of roads.
So-called rat miners were brought in to drill through rocks and gravel by hand after a large drilling machine broke down.
Once the men had been reached, three teams of four rescuers were sent in to help pull out the workers on wheeled stretchers through a 3-foot-wide steel pipe which rescuers had pushed through dirt and rocks.
The men had been receiving food, water, light, oxygen and medicines through a smaller pipe, which was installed to provide supplies as they awaited rescue.
‘Workers likely to develop PTSD’
While trapped, the workers had 2km of space within the tunnel to walk around in and were encouraged to talk to each other, tell stories, do yoga, take light exercise and play board games sent into them.
However, a senior mental health doctor said some of the men were likely to develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from their ordeal.
Rescue workers installed a pipe in which they were able to send food and supplies through
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“All 41 would experience some post-traumatic symptoms like insomnia, recurrent bad dreams, recurrent reliving of the tunnel collapse, anxiety,” said Dr Dinakaran Damodharan from the state-run National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences.
“Not everyone will have the disorder, but most will suffer from these symptoms for, say, three to six months.”
The outside of the tunnel which collapsed in Uttarakhand
Dr Damodharan said they should be checked for at least a year and may have enduring changes to their personality.
While authorities have not said what caused the collapse, there have previously been landslides, earthquakes and floods in the area.
A new aid system has opened its first distribution centres in Gaza, according to a US-backed organisation dealing with supplies.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) began its operations in the territory on Monday, following the resignation of its director, Jake Wood, over its independence.
Gaza’s 2.3m population has been pushed towards famine by Israel’s almost three-month blockade.
Boxes of aid to be distributed across Rafah. Pic: Reuters.
The GHF said lorryloads of food – it did not say how many – had been delivered to its hubs, and distribution to Palestinians had begun.
“More trucks with aid will be delivered tomorrow, with the flow of aid increasing each day,” it said in a statement.
The controversial group, backed by Israel and the United States, has been rejected by the United Nations and other aid groups.
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People line up for food in Gaza
UN agencies and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF.
They claim Israel is weaponising food, and the new distribution system will be ineffective and lead to further displacement of Palestinians.
They also argue the GHF will fail to meet local needs, and violates humanitarian principles that prohibit a warring party from controlling humanitarian assistance.
In the meantime, scores of Palestinians in Gaza, like Islam Abu Taima, have resorted to searching through rubbish to find food.
Palestinians are having to search through rubbish to find food
She found a small pile of cooked rice, scraps of bread, and a box with a few pieces of cheese inside it – which she said she will serve to her five children.
“We’re dying of hunger,” she told the Associated Press news agency.
“If we don’t eat, we’ll die.”
Islam Abu Taeima finds a piece of bread in a pile of rubbish in Gaza City. Pic: AP.
It is unclear how many of the GHF’s aid trucks will enter Gaza.
It claims it will reach one million Palestinians by the end of the week.
There are questions, however, over who is funding it and how it will work.
Trucks transporting aid for Palestinians in Rafah. Pic: Reuters.
It has been set up as part of an Israeli plan – rather than a UN distribution effort.
Israel, which suggested a similar plan earlier this year, has said it will not be involved in distributing the aid but supported the plan and would provide security.
It says aid deliveries into Gaza are taken by Hamas instead of going to civilians.
Aid groups, however, say there is no evidence of this happening on a systemic basis.
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Israel began to allow a limited amount of food into Gaza last week – after a blockade that prevented food, medicine, fuel and other goods from entering the Palestinian enclave.
A letter has been signed by hundreds of judges and lawyers calling on the UK government to impose trade sanctions on Israel.
It also calls for Israeli ministers to be sanctioned and the suspension of Israel from the UN over “serious breaches of international law”.
“Genocide is being perpetrated in Gaza or that, at a minimum, there is a serious risk of genocide,” the letter says.
The Israeli government has repeatedly dismissed allegations of genocide in Gaza.
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At least 31 dead after school attack
More than 52,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched its ground invasion of Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, following the deadly attacks by the militant group on Israel, which killed 1,200 people and saw around 250 people taken hostage.
The health ministry’s figures do not differentiate between civilians and fighters in Gaza.
King Charles and Queen Camilla are being urged to use their visit to Canada to seek an apology for the abuse of British children.
Campaigners have called on them to pursue an apology for the “dire circumstances” suffered by so-called “Home Children” over decades.
More than 100,000 were shipped from orphan homes in the UK to Canada between 1869 and 1948 with many used as cheap labour, typically as farm workers and domestic servants. Many were subject to mistreatment and abuse.
Canada has resisted calls to follow the UK and Australia in apologising for its involvement in child migrant schemes.
King Charles and Mark Carney on Monday. Pic: PA
Campaigners for the Home Children say the royal visit presents a “great opportunity” for a change of heart.
“I would ask that King Charles uses his trip to request an apology,” John Jefkins told Sky News.
John’s father Bert was one of 115,000 British Home Children transported to Canada, arriving in 1914 with his brother Reggie.
“It’s really important for the Home Children themselves and for their descendants,” John said.
“It’s something we deserve and it’s really important for the healing process, as well as building awareness of the experience of the Home Children.
“They were treated very, very badly by the Canadian government at the time. A lot of them were abused, they were treated horribly. They were second-class citizens, lepers in a way.”
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John Jefkins
John added: “I think the King’s visit provides a great opportunity to reinforce our campaign and to pursue an apology because we’re part of the Commonwealth and King Charles is a new Head of the Commonwealth meeting a new Canadian prime minister. It’s a chance, for both, to look at the situation with a fresh eye.
“There’s much about this visit that looks on our sovereignty and who we are as Canadians, rightly so.
“I think it’s also right that in contemplating the country we built, we focus on the people who built it, many in the most trying of circumstances.”
The issue was addressed by the then Prince of Wales during a tour of Canada in May 2022. He said at the time: “We must find new ways to come to terms with the darker and more difficult aspects of the past.”
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King Charles and Queen Camilla are on a two-day visit to Canada.
On Tuesday, the King will deliver the Speech from the Throne to open the 45th session of Canada’s parliament.
Camilla was made Patron of Barnardo’s in 2016. The organisation sent tens of thousands of Home Children to Canada. She took on the role, having served as president since 2007.
Buckingham Palace has been contacted for comment.
A spokesperson for the Canadian government said: “The government of Canada is committed to keeping the memory of the British Home Children alive.
“Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada deeply regrets this unjust and discriminatory policy, which was in place from 1869 to 1948. Such an approach would have no place in modern Canada, and we must learn from past mistakes.”
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