BANGKOK (AP) — The bodies of three foreign workers trapped for days in a railway tunnel in northeastern Thailand that collapsed during construction have been recovered after an intensive rescue operation, Thai officials said Friday.
The tunnel is part of a Thai-Chinese high-speed rail project connecting the capital Bangkok with the northeastern province of Nong Khai, bordering Laos.
Part of it collapsed on Saturday night while three foreign workers, one from Myanmar and two from China, were inside. The tunnel is in Nakhon Ratchasima province, 250 kilometers (155 miles) northeast of Bangkok.
The investigation into the accident is still ongoing, but Thai media reported that Deputy Transport Minister Surapong Piyachote said on Monday that the ground above the tunnel had become particularly heavy due to days of rain.
The body of one worker, a truck driver from Myanmar, was found on Thursday and those of the other two on Friday, Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told media.
He said the two Chinese victims were a supervisor and an excavator operator.
According to him, an autopsy at a provincial hospital should determine the cause of death.
“The first results showed that the first victim we found yesterday died of asphyxiation,” Anutin said.
The 126-hour rescue operation was led by the State Railway of Thailand and a rescue team from China, which arrived at the scene on Tuesday.
The ambitious two-phase rail project has a total investment cost of more than 520 billion baht (US$15.3 billion).
The 243-kilometer section from Bangkok to Nakhon Ratchasima is expected to be completed in 2028, and the 356-kilometer section from Nakhon Ratchasima to Nong Khai in 2029.
