More than two dozen people were miraculously rescued from after a tunnel collapsed in the Los Angeles suburb of Wilmington on Wednesday night.
Los Angeles Fire Department crews raced to the scene on South Figueroa Street at around 8pm, and deployed all of its Urban Search and Rescue Teams to free the workers stuck under the rubble, CBS News reports.
As many as 31 workers were then hoisted from a crane to the surface in groups of eight until they were all accounted for, according to NBC Los Angeles.
As their feet touched the ground, the freed workers were seen hugging in relief.
The collapse occurred at the $630.5 million Los Angeles Effluent Outfall Tunnel project, commissioned by the LA County Sanitation District.
Making rescue efforts more complicated, the only access to the tunnel is as much as six miles away from the response area, the LA Fire Department said.
Flatiron Dragados, the prime contractor for the sewage project, also wrote on its website that the tunnel is seven miles long, about 18 feet wide and 450 feet below ground level.
But by 9pm, the first group of construction workers could be seen landing safely on the ground.
More than two dozen people are trapped underground after a tunnel collapsed in the Los Angeles suburb of Wilmington
The Los Angeles Fire Department has since deployed all of its Urban Search and Rescue Teams
By 9pm, a handful of construction workers were seen being hoisted from a crane to the surface
Authorities have now requested at least 10 ambulances, according to Fox 11.
The cause of the collapse remains unclear.
But LA County officials had hoped to have the tunneling aspect of the project completed this year, with the entire wastewater management project done by 2027.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
