Tunnel collapse: Rescuers to dig by hand to rescue trapped workers

RESCUE work to save 41 workers trapped in a tunnel in Uttarakhand state has been delayed by at least four to five days because the drilling machine broke down inside the tunnel.

Rescuers will begin digging manually once the faulty part is removed, according to the BBC.

The workers have been stuck inside the tunnel for two weeks after a portion of it collapsed due to a landslide.

The operation has been challenging due to the presence of rocks, stones and metal inside the debris.

Rescuers have to resort to drilling by hand because the auger keeps getting stuck on pieces of metal that have been mixed in with the debris, and say it would be better to switch to manual drilling instead of waiting for a replacement machine.

Arnold Dix, a tunnelling expert helping with the rescue work, told reporters at the site: "The machine has broken. It's irreparable. It is disrupted."

But Mr Dix said he was confident the 41 men would return home, saying there were "many ways" to reach them.

A section of the 4.5 km (3 miles) Silkyara tunnel in the Himalayas caved in on 12 November.

Contact was established with the trapped men shortly thereafter, and they have been receiving oxygen, food and water ever since.

Rescuers were just 9m (30ft) from breaking through to the workers before the auger broke.

Pushkar Singh Dhami, Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, told reporters on Saturday that the damaged drilling machine would be taken out by Sunday morning allowing rescuers to continue digging manually.

Mr Dhami told reporters he had spoken to the trapped men, saying: "They are in good spirits. They said: 'Take as many days as you require, don't worry about us.'"

In the meantime, ambulances have been kept on standby outside the tunnel. Officials say the aim is to pull the workers out to safety and shift them to the nearby hospital as quickly as possible.