The 12 workers who have been trapped in a railway tunnel collapse accident are safe till early Thursday morning, rescuers said.

According to the rescuers, who are trying to drilling through the collapsed tunnel, the trapped workers have acquired milk sent to them. Doctors and nurses are waiting at the scene for joining the rescue work.

The accident happened at around 10:30 PM Tuesday at a tunnel on a railway section some 30 kilometers from Qujing City, southwest China's Yunnan Province, when the workers were laboring at the entrance of the tunnel.

Most of the 12 trapped workers were from Sichuan and Hunan provinces, the rescuers said. At 5:30 on Wednesday morning, the rescuers got in contact with the trapped workers through the ventilation pipe. 

(Xinhua News Agency May 19, 2005)