Frantic bid to free 30 entombed people

FRANTIC Iraqis were last night battling a race against time after discovering up to 30 people cemented into an underground vault by Saddam Hussein.

The find, made on Monday in Amara, eastern Iraq, has seen hundreds of local men trying desperately to reach those trapped, thought to be the Iraqi leader’s prisoners of conscience.

Locals say the group, who had been held captive by Saddam for opposing his regime, could be heard screaming for help as they valiantly tried to reach them. Using only primitive pick axes and sledgehammers the team of men were working round the clock to try and free those trapped. At night they operated by candlelight as their electricity had been taken out by an American bomb two weeks ago.