A major rescue operation has been launched after a tunnel collapsed in Los Angeles, with dozens of people inside it.
More than 30 construction workers were rescued in a dramatic late-night operation in Wilmington, a neighborhood in Los Angeles, on Wednesday night.
The collapse occurred deep underground during work on a $630 million taxpayer-funded sewage infrastructure project.
The Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) deployed all of its Urban Search and Rescue teams to the scene around 8 p.m.
Emergency crews raced to free the trapped workers beneath hundreds of feet of earth.
According to officials, the collapse happened along the Los Angeles Effluent Outfall Tunnel.
The tunnel is a seven-mile-long, 18-foot-diameter project commissioned by the LA County Sanitation District.
NBC Los Angeles reported that 31 workers were eventually extracted from the tunnel in coordinated groups using a crane and a cage elevator system known as a “bird cage.”
By 9 p.m., all personnel had been accounted for.
Amazingly, no injuries were reported.
Paramedics on site cleared each worker after evaluation.
The workers had reportedly managed to climb over a 12 to 15-foot mound of collapsed debris to reach a safer portion of the tunnel.
From there, they navigated more than