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10-hour ordeal in tunnel

Khaleej Times was there to witness the efforts to rescue the two labourers, which lasted for 10 hours.

Abu Dhabi Police formed a rescue operation squad headed by Colonel Khalid Al Dosery, Head of Ambulance and Rescue Department. The squad laid out a plan to save the two labourers who were trapped inside the 45-metre-long and 8 metre-wide tunnel which ended with a deep hole.

The rescue team confronted many difficulties as the tunnel was so narrow. Besides, steel pipes inside the tunnel hindered the operations.

In view of the difficult situation, Colonel Dosery and the other members of the rescue team Lieutenant-Colonel Othman Hassan, Director of the Department of Rapid Intervention; and Captain Mohammed Al Ansary, Chief of the Ambulance and Rescue Department; prepared the two paramedics, UAE citizens Adnan Mohammed Salim and Omar Nasser bin Samidaa, to go into the tunnel crawling.

After removing the steel pipes, thirty metres long, from inside the tunnel, the first paramedic Adnan Salem crawled inside. But after 10 minutes, he asked the team to draw him out as he was unable to breath. The second paramedic, Omar Nasser, also crawled inside, but only to be dragged out after fifteen minutes.

Talking to Khaleej Times, Adnan Salem said he was forced to come out because of the rotten smell of dead bodies inside the tunnel.

"Their bodies were stuck to the steel pipes which made it impossible to drag them outside the tunnel," added Salem.

The third worker Karam Ali Mahmoud, an Egyptian, who had a miraculous escape, also tried to get inside the tunnel in search of Naeem Mohammed and Narsiman Koden, both of whom died.

Karam told Khaleej Times: "Thank God. I was reborn. I was about to die of suffocation from the stench inside. I rushed out to breathe life again."

Moments later, Karam fainted and fell on the ground and was taken to hospital.

Abdul Rahim Humaid, Foreman at Drillcon International, the company executing the project for the 85-meter-long tunnel for extending sewerage pipes, told Khaleej Times that he had seen the two workers.

"Naeem Mohammed entered the tunnel for an urgent assignment, and after 20 minutes, around 8.20pm, the Indian worker Narsiman sought permission to go inside the tunnel in search of his Egyptian colleague. Minutes later, I went down to speak to Narsiman, but I heard him saying "Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar" (Allah is Great, Allah is Great), though he was a Hindu. These were the last words I heard from him," Humaid added.

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