Rescuers pull out first of 41 construction workers stuck inside collapsed tunnel for more than two weeks in India

RESCUERS pull out the first of 41 construction workers stuck inside a collapsed tunnel for more than two weeks.

All of the men were freed yesterday after mining experts drilled through rock, concrete and earth to reach them.

They were trapped 17 days ago when a landslide cut off the tunnel they were digging under the Himalayas in India.

Food, water and oxygen were sent through narrow pipes, but efforts to get them out were frustrated by setbacks

The men were said to be “overjoyed” to be free and were taken to hospital for checks.

A rescue official said: "The first one is out".

The men's families have been growing more worried and frustrated as the rescue operation enters a more critical stage.

The dad of one of the workers, Munnilal Kishku said he has barely slept since the collapse.

"We never could have imagined a situation like this," Kishku told AFP from his village in the eastern state of Bihar, one of India's poorest.

He said his family were suffering "sleepless nights" as they waited.

Excavators have been removing tonnes of earth, concrete and rubble from the under-construction tunnel in the northern Himalayan state of Uttarakhand since November 12, when a portion of it collapsed.

But rescue efforts have been slow, complicated by falling debris as well as repeated breakdowns of crucial heavy drilling machines.