Rescuers are said to have found five more bodies of the missing construction workers involved in the Hangzhou subway tunnel collapse in east China’s Zhejiang Province, driving up the death toll to 17, with another four people still missing.
Rescuers found five bodies between 8pm Saturday and 10am Sunday in the debris near the eastern side of the cave-in, said a source with the on-the-scene rescue headquarters.
It started to drizzle from late Saturday to early Sunday, but more than 400 rescuers continued to remove saturated mud from the crater in search of those missing. Most of the mud, estimated to be 10,000 cu m in volume, was cleared as of Sunday.
The tragedy began when a 75-m section of the subway tunnel at the planned Xianghu Station in the suburbs of Hangzhou collapsed in the afternoon of 15 November.
Besides the 21 people who are dead or missing, 24 others were injured in the accident. A total of 11 construction workers are still in hospital.
The State Council Work Safety Committee said in a report issued last Wednesday that inadequate local government surveillance and poor construction safety management were to blame for the accident.
In response the next day, the Zhejiang provincial work safety committee launched a safety examination at major construction projects across the province.
As of Saturday, nearly all Chinese cities where subways are being constructed have launched safety checks.
Zhou Zhiping, company spokesman in charge of the compensation, was reported saying families of the dead would be compensated a minimum of 200,000 yuan (about US$28,570) per person, with an additional 150,000 yuan (US$21,428) per person from the insurance company.
Vehicles are seen trapped and submerged at the site of a the subway tunnel after it collapsed in Hangzhou on Saturday, 15 November 2008 Rescuers watch a house being torn down near the crater formed by the Hangzhou subway tunnel collapse on Monday 17 November 2008, while new cracks seen near the site raised worries of further collapses. A crew works at the site of the Hangzhou subway collapse in east China’s Zhejiang province, on Monday 17th November 2008
