China tunnel collapse traps 15, rescue continues

Rescuers were working all out Monday night hoping to reach the 15 workers who had been trapped in the debris of a collapsed railway tunnel in southwest China's Yunnan Province, the local government said.

As of 11 p.m., authorities had sent more than 400 rescuers to the site, said a press official in Funing County of Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture of Wenshan in a midnight telephone interview with Xinhua.

Part of the tunnel, which was still under construction, collapsed at 4 p.m. in Funing County.

The collapsed section was about 4 kilometers from the entrance of the tunnel. It was not immediately clear how it happened, or whether there was any chance for survival, the official said on condition of anonymity.

Xinhua reporters are on their way to Funing County, which is more than 450 km from the provincial capital Kunming.

The tunnel, known as Funing No. 1 tunnel, was on a 710-km railway linking Kunming with Nanning, capital of the neighboring Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Construction of the railway began in 2009 and it was expected to open to traffic in 2016.