Rescue operations were suspended due to dangerous situation inside a collapsed tunnel, which caved in at the Yamanashi Prefecture on Sunday, Japan’s Kyodo reported.
The Japanese police said they have seen charred bodies in a vehicle inside the collapsed tunnel, media reported.
The exact number of casualties is still unknown.
Firefighters suspended their operations around local time 1 p.m., saying situation inside the tunnel is too dangerous to continue their work.
Local Fire and Disaster Management Agency said the collapse left at least seven people missing and two others injured, trapping vehicles as smoke from a fire inside initially prevented rescuers from approaching.
Video footage from cameras inside the tunnel, after the fire was extinguished, showed firefighters picking their way through cement roof panels that collapsed onto vehicles inside the Sasago Tunnel, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) outside the city. However, local media reported rescuers had suspended work out of fears of another collapse in the tunnel.
A woman who escaped from her rental car after it was trapped in the (2.5 mile) 4.3 kilometer-long tunnel told authorities that she was unsure about the condition of five other people who had been in the vehicle with her. Another two vehicles were known to be buried in the rubble, suggesting at least seven people were trapped inside, according to a statement by the Fire and Disaster Management Agency.
It said two people were confirmed injured, one of them moderately.
The cause in the collapse of about 330 feet (100 meters) of the tunnel was under investigation.
Police vehicles, fire trucks and ambulances were massed outside the tunnel’s entrance. A man who said he saw the collapse and alerted authorities to the emergency told NHK television he managed to escape after he was ordered to flee. The roof and windows of another vehicle parked on the roadside outside the tunnel were crushed, and the injured occupants reportedly taken to a hospital.
Keywords: Japan, tunnel collapse, Sasago Tunnel, Chou Expressway, Otsuki
@ Ramaswamy Kumar - Linking a tunnel cave in to earthquakes caused by
the dams constructed all over the world is too far fetched and ludicrous. Reservoir induced or triggered seismicity is no doubt a
theory advanced by a section of geologists, but is not scientifically
proven. All predictions in the past, by proponents of this theory, of
earthquakes in the vicinity of dams in India have been wrong.
This is not an tragedy only for Japan.Evryday with high technology at
ourhands, we Fail to use Basics of these-at grassroots level we should
check or develop sensors to monitor all dams, bridges mainly after any
earthquakes, floods, storms etc- these will give precise indications
of the health of these structures similar to every Human body which
alerts brains etc daily on health.
We should now wake up in all countries etc but in India it will depend
on tenders and moneygreasing below the tables to get any indication.
Venkat
This tragedy is in line with a series of serious life and death disasters(for those involved and others who will be in future) caused by dams. Google search for Predicting Earthquakes/Ramaswami Ashok Kumar and check out the unfolding pralaya like situations. The surges induced by the world's dams are travelling around through the earth in surge waves causing earthquakes and related events like infrastructure collapses by a nuclear effect that caused the Fukushima ongoing catastrophe. More Fukushimas around the world are certain to occur because of this phenomenon which has rigid scientific validity. These are all preceded by deep focus erathquakes also triggered by the dams.
The process of rescuing should be incorporated with high technological assistance in future period.Then only loss of lives can be prevented.NDRF should be developed further by joint training with foreign contries.
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