All 15 construction workers trapped in a collapsed tunnel in the Los Angeles region have been rescued without injury, the fire department reported on Thursday.
The scene of the accident lies around 30 kilometres south of central Los Angeles.
The fire department said that preliminary reports were that the trapped workers were able to scramble over a pile of loose soil of up to 5 metres to meet coworkers on the other side of the collapse.
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They were then shuttled several at a time by a tunnel vehicle to the tunnel access point more than eight kilometres away.
More than 100 fire department personnel were deployed, including specialist rescue teams.
The tunnel, measuring some 5.5 metres in diameter and 11 kilometres in length, was being constructed for municipal wastewater management.
Broadcaster CBS News reported that the construction workers were trapped for roughly an hour. (dpa/NAN)