HANGZHOU, June 6 (Xinhua) -- Fifteen out of the 18 workers trapped inside a water diversion tunnel near Qingyuan, a mountainous county in east China, during a flash flood have been rescued, a source with a local water control unit in the province said Tuesday.
By 12:30 hours Tuesday, however, three workers remain missing and the effort to their aid still went on, according to the county water control department of Qingyuan in Zhejiang Province, which partook in the rescue operation.
The 18 workers came to do grouting inside the Huangxiukeng water diversion tunnel being built for a local hydropower station early Monday as usual, but it rained hard outside the tunnel. The water diversion tunnel was flooded around 4:33 a.m. Monday amid the ensuing flash flood which drove up the water table in the nearby reservoir connected with the tunnel.
Being told of the mishap, the hydropower station authorities sent workers to plug the sluice gate between the reservoir and the tunnel, while reporting the mishap to the Qingyuan county government.
A special leading group was formed by the county government to give guidance in the rescue operation.
Fifteen of the trapped workers were rescued after some flooded water was pumped by motor-driven fire control pumps, local sources said. And around 6:15 a.m. Tuesday, local meteorological observatory re-issued an orange signal for another possible rainstorm, and a rainfall of 50 mm was recorded in the past 12 hours. Enditem
