Undersea tunnel collapsed in Japan

Divers were searching for five workers after an undersea tunnel collapsed at one of Japan's biggest oil refineries Tuesday, emergency services said, the AFP reports.

Live TV showed divers in debris-filled water as emergency services waited at the top of the 30 meter wide entrance to the tunnel at Mizushima oil refinery in Okayama prefecture after the men, aged 38 to 61, went missing when it flooded with seawater.

One worker escaped from the tunnel, said a spokesman for operator JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corp, Japan's biggest refiner.

The tunnel, 35 meters deep and 820 meters long, is to connect Mizushima refinery-B to refinery-A and carry pipelines used to transport oil and semi-finished products. JX launched the project two years ago, the Reuters reports.