India

UTTARKASHI, India (AP) — Rescuers in India on Tuesday reached 41 construction workers who were trapped in a collapsed mountain tunnel for over two weeks in the country’s north and started pulling them out, a local news agency reported.

One worker has been rescued so far, the report by the Press Trust of India said. The laborers are being pulled out through a passageway made of welded pipes which rescuers previously pushed through dirt and rocks.

SILKYARA, India, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Rescuers on Monday brought in "rat miners" to drill through a narrow pipe and help pull out 41 construction workers trapped in a tunnel in the Indian Himalayas for more than two weeks after high-powered machines failed, officials said.

The men, low-wage workers from India's poorest states, have been stuck in the 4.5km (3 miles) tunnel in Uttarakhand state since it collapsed on Nov. 12.

NEW DELHI (AP) — Attempts to reach 41 construction workers stuck in a collapsed tunnel in northern India for two weeks were again stymied Saturday.

The drilling machine broke down late Friday while making its way through the rubble, stones and metal, forcing the rescuers to work by hand to remove debris in hopes of reaching the stranded workers, but the whole operation has ground to a halt.

Arnold Dix, an international expert assisting the rescue team at the site in the mountainous Uttarakhand state, said that it was unclear when the drilling will start again.

NEW DELHI (AP) — Attempts to reach 41 construction workers stuck in a collapsed tunnel in northern India for two weeks were again stymied Saturday.

Rescuers had been working by hand to remove debris after the drilling machine they were using broke down a day earlier while making its way through the debris of rock, stones and metal, but the operation was halted on Saturday.

Arnold Dix, an international expert assisting the rescue team at the accident site in Uttarakhand state, said it is unclear when the drilling will be able to start again.

NEW DELHI, Nov 24 (Reuters) - A tunnel which collapsed, trapping 41 workers in the Indian Himalayas this month, did not have an emergency exit and was built through a geological fault, a member of a panel of experts investigating the disaster said on Friday.

Rescuers are still struggling to reach the construction workers 12 days after the 4.5-km (3-mile) tunnel caved in. The men, from some of India's poorest states, have been getting food, water and medicine through a pipe.

NEW DELHI (AP) — The Afghan Embassy in New Delhi is permanently closed, it announced Friday, due to challenges from the Indian government and a lack of diplomatic support.

In a press release, it said the decision was already effective from Thursday and follows the embassy’s earlier move to cease operations starting Oct. 1 due to the absence of a recognized government in Kabul. At the time, it had said it would continue to provide emergency consular services to Afghan nationals.

NEW DELHI, Nov. 21 (Xinhua) -- India's top health research body, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), said on Tuesday a comprehensive study showed that COVID-19 vaccination was not responsible for unexplained sudden deaths among young adults in the country.

The investigation, titled "Factors associated with unexplained sudden deaths among adults aged 18-45 years in India, a multicentric matched case-control study", was conducted between October 2021 and March 2023.

NEW DELHI (AP) — The 41 construction workers who have been trapped in a collapsed tunnel in northern India for over a week are finally getting hot meals Tuesday, provided through a newly installed steel pipe, as rescuers work on an alternate plan of digging toward them vertically.

The meals, made of rice and lentils, were sent through a 6-inch-(15.24 cm) pipe pushed through the rubble late Monday, said Deepa Gaur, a government spokesperson.

NEW DELHI, Nov 20 (Reuters) - India's capital Delhi re-opened schools and some building sites on Monday amid signs of receding air pollution, although it remained classified as hazardous, while a toxic foam besmirched stretches of the Yamuna river flowing through the city.

The world's most polluted capital resumed its annual battle on pollution this month, despite government pledges to improve. Monday's air quality index (AQI) of 336 was down from Thursday's level of 509, but still "hazardous", Swiss group IQAir said.

LUCKNOW, India (AP) — Officials trying to reach 41 workers who have been trapped in a collapsed tunnel in northern India for eight days were contemplating alternative rescue plans Sunday after snags with a drilling machine caused them to halt digging.

A new drilling machine arrived at the accident site in Uttarakhand state on Saturday to replace one that was damaged while breaking through the rocks and debris. They had been using the drill to create a space to insert wide pipes through which the trapped workers could crawl to their freedom.