Five missing after Japan tunnel collapse 



Divers began searching for five missing workers in the dark and muddy waters of a collapsed tunnel at one of Japan’s biggest oil refineries yesterday, emergency services said.
Six people were in the partially constructed undersea tunnel at Kurashiki when it caved in, but one managed to get out, a spokesman for the city fire department said.
The survivor “said that sea water came gushing in” and flooded the tunnel, according to the spokesman.
The man told police that he thought he heard a voice saying “Danger! Leave!” and climbed up a staircase to the surface.
The accident happened at Mizushima Refinery, operated by JX Nippon Oil and Energy Corp, around 550 kilometres (350 miles) west of Tokyo.
Six police divers entered the vertical shaft of the tunnel where visibility was low because of debris, mud and oil.
They were only able to search for around 90 minutes because of conditions at the site, amid fears that their own lives would be put at risk.
It was not clear whether sea water was continuing to gush into the tunnel, creating dangerous currents and hampering the search effort, a spokesman for Okayama prefecture police said.
“The divers cannot see anything,” he said.
“They were swimming into debris and into each other in the tunnel. There were also fears that the debris could cut the pipes for their dive gear and put the divers in danger.
“We have to see how conditions will improve from tomorrow on.”
Aerial television footage broadcast by NHK mid-afternoon showed muddy water littered with debris filling the vertical entrance shaft.
The refinery, which began operating in 1961, has capacity to process 365,000 barrels of oil per day and produces fuel oil, lubricant and various petrochemical products.
It also serves as a hub for the heavy industrial district of the city.