A return to the open air. Indian rescue teams have succeeded in freeing 41 workers trapped for 17 days in a collapsed road tunnel in northern India, a minister announced on Tuesday, November 28.

“I am very relieved and happy that 41 workers trapped in the Silkyara tunnel collapse have been rescuedRoad Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari said in a statement. He said hello”well-coordinated effort» after allowing «one of the most important rescue operations in recent years“.

After repeated setbacks, military engineers and miners worked manually to push through rock and rubble to clear the final stretch and reach the trapped people. A team of three people took turns digging and inserting the final section of steel tube wide enough to allow one person to pass through, and allowing the workers to evacuate.

Metal rod

While one was digging, the second removed the debris by hand and the third loaded it into a cart which then reached the exit, explained Rajput Rai, a drilling expert, quoted by the agency. Indian Trust Press. The men also had to cut through metal bars that hindered their progress.

Since the tunnel collapse on November 12, rescue efforts have been complicated and slowed by falling debris and successive breakdowns of drills, machinery vital to rescuing workers.

The men were able to survive for more than two weeks thanks to the delivery of air, food, water and electricity through a tube through which an endoscopic camera was inserted. These cameras allowed their families to see them last week, for the first time since the tunnel collapsed.