A worker in their 20s was rescued after about 13 hours at the construction site of the Shinan-san Line underground tunnel in Gwangmyeong, Gyeonggi Province, where a collapse occurred. One other worker is still missing, and police and fire authorities continue search operations.
According to police and fire authorities on the 12th, excavator operator A was trapped about 30 meters underground after the collapse that occurred around 3:13 p.m. the previous day and was rescued at approximately 4:27 a.m. on the same day after an overnight rescue operation. It had been about 13 hours since the accident occurred.
A is reported to be in a non-life-threatening condition. Consciousness is relatively clear, and A is said to have communicated with rescuers while they were clearing debris that was pinning A down. A has been transported to a hospital for further examination.
Rescue workers found A's location, who had been able to use their phone for calls since the beginning of the isolation. They approached close enough to hear A's voice, but due to the nature of the collapse site, heavy equipment could not be deployed, which delayed the rescue.
The incident occurred when the upper road collapsed at the construction site of the Shinan-san Line double-track project, section 5-2, being constructed by POSCO E&C near Yangjisa intersection in Iljik-dong, Gwangmyeong.
Initially, of the total 18 workers, contact could not be established with five, but safety was confirmed for three of them in turn.
Of the remaining two, A, who was rescued, belongs to a subcontractor, while one worker from POSCO E&C is still missing, so search operations will continue throughout the day.
Police and fire authorities are using techniques such as tracking mobile phone locations to determine the whereabouts of the missing worker.
After the accident, Gwangmyeong city ordered residents around the accident site to evacuate to prevent secondary damage, leading many residents to move to evacuation shelters. The evacuation order affected approximately 2,400 people, including 2,300 residents from 642 nearby apartment units and 144 from officetels, many of whom spent the night awake at designated shelters, including the Citizen's Gymnasium and seven schools.
An official from the Korea Railroad Corporation noted during a briefing at the site the previous day, "Measurement devices were installed at the nearby apartments, allowing us to continuously monitor safety, and we have determined that there were no changes between yesterday and today," adding, "We will review the measurement results with experts to determine whether the apartments can be occupied and will inform accordingly."
While investigating the cause of the accident, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has established an accident response headquarters, and NEXTRAIN, the private investment project implementer for the Shinan-san Line, has also set up an accident management headquarters at the site. The Southern Gyeonggi Police Agency has begun preliminary investigations related to the cause of the accident, centered on the Criminal Division.