UTTARKASHI, NOVEMBER 28

The Press Trust of India news agency says rescuers have reached workers trapped in a collapsed mountain tunnel and have started pulling them out. One worker has been rescued so far, the report said.

The rescue mission has grabbed the country's attention for 17 days. The laborers are being pulled out through a passageway made of welded pipes which rescuers previously pushed through dirt and rocks.

They got trapped on Nov. 12, when a landslide caused a portion of the 4.5-kilometer (2.8-mile) tunnel they were building in Uttarakhand state to collapse about 200 meters (650 feet) from the entrance.

The workers, who survived on food and oxygen supplied through narrow steel pipes, will be taken to a makeshift health center inside the 13-meter (42.6 feet) wide tunnel, officials said.