| OVER 100 STILL MISSING IN GOTHARD TUNNEL FIRE |
26 October 2001 |
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Up to 128 people were reported
to be still missing yesterday more than 24 hours after a fierce
fire broke out in Switzerland's Gotthard tunnel, throwing
road freight traffic in the heart of Europe into chaos. Swiss officials confirmed that 10 bodies - nine men and one woman - had been retrieved after the two trucks, one carrying tyres, collided on Wednesday, sparking a fire that raised temperatures in part of the 17km tunnel to 1,000C and brought down large chunks of the roof. Rescuers were not able to bring the blaze under control until yesterday afternoon and were last night beginning the search for more bodies in the world's second longest tunnel. Up to 40 cars and vans, most fused to a molten mass, were reported to be at the heart of the disaster zone. The Gotthard tunnel disaster will hit European freight traffic hard. The third major accident in a transalpine tunnel in as many years, it leaves two of the four main road freight routes linking Germany, Switzerland, France and Italy out of operation. Mont Blanc Tunnel unlikely to reopen France's Mont Blanc tunnel, shut since a fire in March 1999 that killed 39 people, was due to reopen before the end of the year. But it is now likely to remain closed for longer, pending stricter safety regulations in the wake of the Swiss blaze. Road hauliers using the key north-south links, which between them carry over 120m tonnes of freight a year through the Alps, now face detours of thousands of miles and long delays at the two freight tunnels still open - the Brenner in Austria and France's Frejus. Frejus had already seen its traffic double since the closure of the Mont Blanc tunnel. Read the full story at GuardianUnlimited
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