Six die after becoming trapped in Tenerife tunnel

SIX people died and 23 were rescued after becoming trapped in an underground shaft on the Spanish island of Tenerife, local officials said.

Five bodies had been brought up and removed by helicopter but emergency services were still working yesterday in difficult conditions, due to lack of air, to bring out the sixth victim, said regional government officer Jose Segura.

The group were exploring the tunnel on Saturday when they got lost.

The other 23 were brought to safety after the alarm was raised by a group member who managed to escape unaided.

The survivors were reported to be suffering from exhaustion, dizziness and nausea. Officials could not immediately identify the nationalities of the dead.

The group, who are members of a local ecological association attached to the Canary Islands Astrophysical Institute, are understood to have had little experience in this kind of exploration, a local government source said.

According to Spanish media reports, a guide who was supposed to accompany them had not been able to do so and gave them telephone instructions instead.

Known locally as the Stone of the Pigs, the 3,000 metre-long shaft near Los Silos in northern Tenerife was dug more than two centuries ago to funnel water from nearby Mount Teide, but was closed in 1964.