Despite intensive recovery efforts lasting for more than five weeks, three foreign workers who were trapped inside a toppled train tunnel have died.
The people, two from China and one from Myanmar, were also thought to be dead as late as Thursday.
They were buried under rubble when part of the tunnel they were building collapsed on Saturday in Pak Chong district, about 200km ( 124 mi ) north-east of the capital Bangkok.
Officials announced on Friday that all three had died, with first examinations suggesting this was caused by a lack of air.
The tunnel, which was under construction and is part of the Thailand-China high-speed railway project, had collapsed due to a landslide at around 23: 40 local time ( 16: 40 GMT ) last Saturday.
Rescuers, comprising officials from the State Railway of Thailand ( SRT ) and a Chinese disaster response team, had been working round-the-clock over the past week with the hope of rescuing the victims.
In an effort to keep the workers dead, they had tried to inject air into the hole, but it’s unclear whether the tubes actually reached the employees.
The body of a Burmese truck drivers was discovered by firefighters on Thursday hidden beneath a pile of rocks and soil.
The bodies of the two Chinese workers, a supervisor and an excavator operator, were found at about 06: 00 local time ( 00: 00 GMT ) on Friday, the SRT said.
According to officials, all three bodies were discovered about 25 meters from the collapse of the hole.
Local studies claim that on Wednesday, rescuers had only managed one inch from one of the men. They claimed to have also heard subpar sound that they thought the men were making on the same day.
The workers ‘ hope that they could still be alive was also confirmed by scanners and sniffer dogs ‘ detection of vital signs, including heartbeats.
However, due to the persistent landslide-falling soil, recovery efforts continued to progress slowly and slowly.
Anutin Charnvirakul, Thailand’s interim interior minister, claimed firefighters were hampered by” the requirement of engineering.”
He said the rescuers had to construct 3m ( 9.8ft ) high supporting structures for their own safety so that their digging would n’t cause other parts of the tunnel to collapse.
” Nobody wanted]this incident ] to happen”, he said at a press conference on Friday.
” We did not only try to save the lives of the victims, we also had to]ensure the safety ] of the rescuers and workers”, he said.
On Friday, the three men’s bodies were removed from the hole.
Thai authorities have opened an investigation into the affair, and design on the tunnel has been temporarily suspended.