Both Reuters and the BBC report the rescuers have broken through rocks and debris to reach the men and will now remove them one at a time on wheeled stretchers through a 90cm pipe.
Retired Lt-Gen Syed Ata Hasnain, who is a member of the National Disaster Management Authority, told the BBC he thought the operation would go on for the “entire night”.
The men have been trapped since a part collapse in the under-construction Silkyara Bend-Barkot Tunnel in Uttarakhand in the Himalayan region on November 12.
The rescue operation has been ongoing since the part collapse happened but it has been hampered by the area’s complex geology. Two ‘lifeline’ pipes have maintained supplies of oxygen, water, food and communications but attempts to build escape routes have been stymied by the geology and steel and machinery caught in the collapse debris.
Yesterday “rat miners” were brought in to drill through the rocks and gravel by hand from inside a 90cm-wide evacuation pipe pushed through the debris.
Reuters is streaming live from the site, where ambulances can be seen waiting at the tunnel entrance.
