Trapped Thai tunnel workers found dead after five-day rescue operation

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All the foreign nationals trapped in a tunnel that collapsed at a high-speed rail construction site in Thailand have been found dead, after five days of rescue efforts.

State Railway of Thailand on Friday announced all three trapped men were found dead, and that initial investigations suggest they died after running out of air.

The workers were thought to be alive as recently as Thursday, as authorities raced against time to reach them.

The victims have been identified as Chinese project supervisor Hu Siang Min, Chinese backhoe driver Dong Chinlin, and a truck driver from Myanmar whose identity was yet to be confirmed.

The bodies of the Chinese nationals were discovered a day after the truck driver was found dead. The Chinese nationals were three metres away from the Myanmar native.

Chinese rescuers had joined Thai authorities in the operation to reach the three workers, who were inside a tunnel at a Thai-China railway construction project when it collapsed due to a landslide in the northeastern province of Nakhon Ratchasima on Saturday.

The tunnel caved in about 1.6km from the entrance near Khlong Khanan Chit train station, trapping workers about 600m further inside.

Thai officials said a scanner and a sniffer dog detected body heat and heartbeats from inside the tunnel at about 4am on Monday, lifting hopes of rescuers. They expected the trapped workers to be rescued by Tuesday evening.

Three vehicles – a backhoe, a truck and a car – were also inside the tunnel when it collapsed.

Thailand's transport ministry pushed rescue tubes through the blocked part of the tunnel to reach the workers. It had been hoped the tubes could be used to pump through air and send emergency supplies until the "opening is big enough for rescuers to reach the men", the ministry said earlier this week.

Anutin Charnvirakul, the Thai caretaker interior minister, said the rescue was hindered by “the limitation of engineering” as the 126-hour-long efforts were slowed due to more landslides.

“We did not only try to save the lives of the victims, we also had to [ensure the safety] of the rescuers and workers,” the minister told reporters.

The state railways company offered its condolences to the victims’ famillies and said it was “ready to provide assistance to the families of the deceased”.

The bodies were taken to a hospital for an autopsy to determine the cause of death.