"Water. We are ok. Send food," reads a note sent out through a hole drilled 26 meters underground into a collapsed tunnel in south China's Hainan Province on Saturday morning.

The note was from eight workers, who have been trapped for 36 hours in the tunnel in Sanya City.

Rescuers are sending water, food and medicine through the hole. The trapped also used a flashlight to echo signals sent by rescuers, saying they were all alive.

As the tunnel is funnel-shaped, it is difficult to dig. Heavy rains have also caused difficulties, rescuers said.

Rescuers were using steel plates to consolidate the structure and tried to enlarge the hole so that the workers could be brought out one by one.

The accident occurred at about 11:30 PM on on Thursday in the Yingbin Tunnel on the expressway circling Sanya City, said Gao Ya, who is with Changsha Road and Bridge Construction Company and in charge of the project.

The shale sand and erosion common to the area make collapses likely, said Wen Junliang, chief engineer of the company.

Governor of Hainan, Luo Baoming, was at the site to oversee the rescue work, which involved more than 100 firefighters, police and medical staff. Two excavators and one loader were clearing the site.

(Xinhua News Agency June 6, 2009)