The last gasoline tanker was finally removed from a collapsed tunnel in Gansu province, which was also severely affected by the earthquake in neighboring Sichuan. The task of clearing the tunnel has been extremely difficult. Our reporter Luchen has the details.

Reporter:

On May 12, affected by the Wenvhuan earthquake, a landslide occurred in Jia Ling County in Gansu province. A 40-car freight train was hit by a big rock when passing through the 109 tunnel on Baoji to Cheng Du railway. The train was derailed and the 500 tons of gasoline on the train was set on fire.

At 3 pm yesterday, the 12th gasoline tanker, which is also the last tanker, has been successfully taken out from the southern side of the tunnel. A local correspondent Kang Ming tells about the difficulty of the rescue operation.

"The 12th tanker blew out as the tunnel collapsed. Some of the debris got stuck in the tunnel, which made the rescue operation very difficult. Meanwhile, there was a lot of earth inside the tunnel, so we can only operate in a very limited space. Most of the time, the rescuers have to dig and clear the tunnel by hand."

The operation took almost 16 hours. After the tanker was dragged out, rescuers checked the carriage immediately. After ensuring that the tanker would not explode, they began clearing the tunnel. Zhao Jianhua from Xi'an Railway Bureau says the success of clearing all the gasoline tankers out is very important to the whole rescue and relief work.

"As the gasoline tankers were cleared out, the hidden danger has been eliminated, for there won't be any explosion. And it also provided a better condition for our construction work. This is very important for our rescue work."

Meanwhile, another 9 carriages of the freight train have been dragged out from the northern exit of the tunnel. Up till last night, a total of 23 carriages have been cleared out of the tunnel, with another 17 still inside. Most of these remaining carriages are full of malt and fertilizers.

Kang Ming also explained the rescue work outside the tunnel.

"On the cliff outside the tunnel, lots of rocks have been removed and cleared. The cliff has also been covered by metal nets. This is to avoid landslides."

Now the next step of rescue is to reinforce the tunnel and repair the rail.