12 trapped under collapsed tunnel for new high speed railway

Changchun is provincial capital of Jilin. Shenyang is capital of neighboring Liaoning province and Harbin is capital of Heilongjiang province.

Twelve workers were trapped Wednesday morning when a tunnel collapsed at a construction site for a key high-speed railway in Northeast China's Jilin province, the provincial government said on its official micro blog at Sina Weibo.

The Jilin-Hunchun High-Speed Railway under construction is expected to be completed and begin regular operation this year. With a total investment of 41.6 billion yuan, the 359-km-long railway will have nine stations and trains are designed for speed at 250 km per hour. It runs from the city of Jilin in the province to Hunchun in the province's Yanbian autonomous county.

The collapsed tunnel, Xiaopanling No 1, is located in Yanbian.

Local government in Yanbian is mobilizing police, firefighters and medics to the site for rescue.

An emergency command center has been set up at the provincial government and provincial Party chief Wang Rulin has arrived at the center to coordinate the rescue operation. Deputy governor Gu Chunli is on the way to the scene of the incident.

The railway is a key project for the province during the Twelveth Five-Year Plan Period (2011-2015).