All 41 trapped miners freed by search teams after over two weeks in India tunnel

All 41 miners who were trapped in a tunnel in India for two weeks have been freed. The men were stuck in the Silkyara tunnel after a landslide caused the entrance to collapse on November 12.

There was a heightened sense of urgency at the rescue site on Tuesday morning (November 28) with family members waiting anxiously. The workers were pulled out through an escape pipe after the last stretch of rubble had been manually drilled by a specialist team of experts.

The enclosed space the workers were trapped in since the entrance collapsed measured an estimated 1.2 miles, with the debris stretching for around 60 metres.

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Kirti Panwar, a state government spokesperson, said about a dozen men had worked overnight to manually dig through rocks and debris, taking turns to drill using hand-held drilling tools and clearing out the muck as they approach what is hoped to be the final stretch of the rescue operation.

Nitin Gadkari, the country’s minister of road transport and highways, said in a video posted on the social media platform X that he was 'completely relieved and happy' after all of the workers were rescued from the Silkyara Tunnel in the northern Indian town of Uttarkashi following the 17-day ordeal.

“This was a well co-ordinated effort by multiple agencies, marking one of the most significant rescue operations in recent years,” Mr Gadkari said.

Rescuers had to dig by hand after their drilling machine broke down on Friday as they continued to try and reach the workers trapped in Uttarakhand state, India, after a landslide