Emergency response in Gwangmyeong: Workers trapped after subway tunnel collapse | world News
On Friday, two workers were trapped after the collapse of a low-building subway tunnel in South Korean city Guangmayong. Officials said the incident resulted in a major emergency response.
According to the National Fire Agency, a site collapsed during the tunnel reinforcement work, which was part of an underground transit project connecting the Yodo district of Seoul in Gyanggi province of the most populous region of South Korea and Ansan and Sihung.
Officials confirmed that two workers were trapped underground. One of them is located and the rescue efforts are underway, while the other – one is identified as an excavator operator – is untreated for it. The agency has deployed 55 fire fighters and 18 emergency vehicles to assist in rescue operations.
Fall followed the earlier warning on the site. Gwangmyong City officials said the workers were withdrawn and a supervisor had evacuated it day before the day before informing about the crack in an underground support column. This led to immediate security measures, in which a stretch of one-kilometer (0.6-mile) of a kilometer (0.6-mile) road was closed, due to the possibility of the land subgroup.
A police officer told reporters, “There were concerns at the ground sub -place, so we blocked the road as a precaution.” The officials had also stopped construction work and restricted traffic in the area before the collapse.
It is not clear whether the two stranded workers re -entered the construction site after initial withdrawal.
Officials said that the road will remain closed till the completion of the reinforcement work and the site is safe.
The incident occurs a few weeks after another construction-related disaster in Seoul, where a large-scale synchhol was opened on a separate metro line extension site, killing a person. That incident raised public concerns over the security of the fast expanded underground transit infrastructure of South Korea.
