National media in China and Australia reported that more than 300 workers from the construction team of a high-speed railway project and nearly 100 from a team working on a local water supply project have been trapped in a tunnel in the Qiaotou township of Benxi city on Monday 6 August. About 20 of the trapped workers were rescued early on Monday as firefighters set up a ropeway to pull people out of the tunnel.
Water up to 2m deep had flooded into the tunnel from the nearby Sandaohe and Xihe rivers after the torrential rain brought.
After Typhoons Damrey and Saola hit China from late on Thursday, a third reached the south-eastern province of Zhejiang on Monday and was expected to bring more torrential rain to inland areas this week.
Torrential rain over the past month has caused floods and landslides that killed several hundred people, including at least 79 in Beijing, and forced the evacuation of more than one million across the country.
