Massive tunnel collapses in Los Angeles with 31 workers inside

Nobody was killed thankfully

The partial damage occurred five to six miles from the entry point, with local TV footage showing several workers being lifted out to safety.

Another load on the opposite end of the collapse managed to scale a 15ft hill of loose soil before reaching their colleagues.

The LA Fire Department said 27 of the 31 were monitored by paramedics afterwards.

Part of the Clearwater Project, the unfinished tunnel's purpose is to eventually transport wastewater from the Joint Water Pollution Control Plant to the ocean, and prior to the incident, hopes were for it to stretch seven miles to Royal Palms Beach by the close of 2025.

LA mayor Karen Bass addressed the emergency situation on social media, tweeting: "LAFD has just reported that all workers who were trapped in the tunnel in Wilmington are now out and accounted for.

"I just spoke with many of the workers who were trapped. Thank you to all of our brave first responders who acted immediately.

"I am feeling very good that this is a great outcome to what started as a very scary evening," she added.

Meanwhile, chief engineer for the LA County Sanitation Districts, Robert Ferrante, went on to explain (per LA Times): "Any time you have a collapse in a tunnel behind you, there is only one way out. So they had to come back and make their way through the damaged section of the tunnel. It was very scary. We are very fortunate no one was hurt."

Work on the tunnel is now frozen for the foreseeable future, according to Ferrante, who'll need to go and assess what went wrong with the collapsed area before construction can resume.

"There's no telling how long that will take. It'll take as long as it needs to make sure that the tunnel is safe," he noted.