Fire spewed thick black smoke in one of the world's longest road tunnels after two trucks crashed head-on Wednesday, trapping motorists. At least 10 people died, police said.
Intense heat and smoke kept rescuers from reaching the crash site for hours, and the death toll was expected to rise, said Benno Buehlmann, chief of Uri state's chemical department.
Many motorists and truckers managed to reach emergency exits on the more than 10-mile-long Gotthard Tunnel, which cuts through the Swiss Alps and is a key connection between northern and southern Europe.
``Without the safety shelters, we would have many more victims on our hands,'' Buehlmann said.
The 10 dead included one of the truck drivers, said Mario Ritter, spokesman for Ticino state police.
With several fires still burning in the tunnel late Wednesday, firefighters broke off attempts to extinguish the blazes. Buehlmann said rescuers planned to let the fire burn out naturally.
Rescue attempts were hampered by temperatures of around 1,800 degrees, officials said earlier. An explosion shortly after the crash had also caused a 100-yard stretch of the roof to collapse onto several vehicles, they said.
Rescue workers were deployed within a minute of the Wednesday morning crash as thick smoke fueled by a load of tires on one of the trucks billowed out of the tunnel, officials said.
Some died trying to reach the shelters or in their cars, authorities said. But ``many people were able to escape, Swiss President Moritz Leuenberger said, thanks to the tunnel's ventilation system and emergency exits and shelters positioned every 250 yards.
Others were able to turn their cars around and drive out of the single-bore, two-lane tunnel, police said. Once the cars were cleared, a number of trucks were able to back out.
Six people were treated for smoke inhalation, officials said.
Officials said it would take days before they could reopen the tunnel.
Built in 1980, the Gotthard has had increased traffic since a 1999 fire forced the closure of the Mont Blanc tunnel between France and Italy. That tunnel blaze killed 39 people. Repair work on the Mont Blanc Tunnel began last year, and it could be open again within months.
(People's Daily 10/25/2001)
