Uttarakhand dam disaster: 'The most difficult seven hours of my life'

Uttarakhand dam disaster: 'The most difficult seven hours of my life'

On Sunday, Basant Bahadur and 11 others were trapped for hours in a tunnel in north India, hanging from iron bars in the roof while some sat on a mechanical digger above icy cold water, waiting for help to arrive.

What the 12 did not know at the time was that a piece of a Himalayan glacier was suspected of shearing off into a river and triggering a huge flood. It sent a deluge of water and debris their way.

It blocked two tunnels connected to the Tapovan Vishnugad hydro power project in the state of Uttarakhand. Basant Bahadur and his group pulled out from the smaller tunnel. Emergency teams are now focused on rescuing 35 people believed to be trapped in the longer one, which is 8.3km (5.1 miles) long.

Here, the survivors tell the BBC what happened in those terrifying hours trapped in complete darkness.

'It was the most difficult seven hours of my life'

Basant Bahadur and several others were working about 300 metres (about 900 feet) inside the 3.8km-long tunnel when the deluge hit.

At first they thought that a gas cylinder had exploded leading to a larger blast which caused the tunnel to cave in. They thought that if they tried to get out of the tunnel, they could risk getting electrocuted - they could see thick smoke rising up. Their ears had become numb from the loud noises.

"Suddenly a big surge of water came rushing towards us in the dark tunnel. We were petrified," Mr Bahadur told the BBC. The workers ran towards a JCB (a mechanical digger) and climbed it to stay above the water that had flowed in.

"It was the most difficult seven hours of my life. But we did not lose hope. We kept encouraging ourselves."

Luckily, Mr Bahadur had his mobile phone with him.

The mobile network in the blocked tunnel was patchy. Finally, they managed to make contact with emergency teams who pulled them out using ropes.

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