Death toll in Kashmir tunnel collapse climbs to 10

Rescuers have found the bodies of nine more workers in a collapsed tunnel in Indian-administered Kashmir, taking the death toll to 10.

The tunnel forms part of a mountainous highway system that was under construction in the Himalayan region when it collapsed on Thursday night.

The body of one worker was recovered Friday.

Aamir Ali, an official at the government’s disaster management department, said on Saturday that the bodies of all missing workers have been recovered.

Emergency crews had used heavy machinery to clear the wreckage at the site of the collapse in southern Ramban district where the under-construction tunnel forms part of a vast network of bridges and tunnels on the strategic highway that connects two key cities of Srinagar and Jammu in the disputed region.

Officials said the section that collapsed was an approach tunnel used for ventilation and moving supplies and equipment to the main, under-construction tunnel.

Rescue work at the site of the collapse was hampered on Friday by a landslide close to the tunnel’s entrance.

A damaged truck is buried under rocks and stones from the rubble of a collapsed tunnel in Ramban district, south of Srinagar, Indian-controlled Kashmir on May 20, 2022 [Dar Yasin/AP]

Video footage from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police showed people being helped to safety as a section of the hillside just outside the tunnel’s entrance begins to slide away.

Three workers are being treated in hospital, Aamir Ali said.