KUNMING - Rescuers have saved the eight workers who were trapped after a tunnel collapsed on Thursday in Southwest China's Yunnan province by 11:50 pm Friday, according to local authorities.

The workers were sent to hospital for treatment and currently in normal condition, local authorities said.

The accident occurred around 6:00 am Thursday when the tunnel, which was under construction on National Highway 214, collapsed in the province's Tibetan autonomous prefecture of Deqen, said a spokesman with the prefecture's information office.

The collapsed area, estimated to be five-to-seven-meters long, is about 460 meters away from the mouth of the tunnel, rescuers said.