Monday, November 22, 2010

Chinese man rescued after 80 hours from pipe submerged under the sea

Rescuers have freed a man working on an offshore platform after a three-day ordeal trapped in a twisted steel pipe beneath the sea.

The 43-year-old, identified only by his surname Fan, was saved after being trapped for 80 hours in a one-metre-diameter steel pipe that sank 18 metres below the sea on Thursday. Mr Fan was working at the bottom of the pipe off the coast of eastern Zhejiang province when tidal pressure suddenly crushed it "like a beverage can", trapping him inside.


Photo from here.

The upper part of the pipe was squeezed to three centimetres at its narrowest part. While trapped, Mr Fan received food and water through a tube and counselling from a psychiatrist. Footage on China Central Television showed workers cutting Fan out with a blowtorch after raising the section of pipe out of the sea.

He was shown being lifted onto a stretcher and being rushed to hospital, but reports said he suffered no serious injuries. China is considered one of the world's most dangerous places to work, with an average of 187 people killed in work-related accidents each day in the first half of this year, according to government figures.

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