A multi-agency operation is being carried out to rescue 40 workers trapped inside a tunnel in Uttarakhand since yesterday morning.

An under-construction tunnel on the Brahmakhal-Yamunotri National Highway in Uttarkashi district partially collapsed at around 5 am yesterday, leaving 40 workers trapped inside.

The rescue operations are being conducted by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Relief Force (SDRF) and the police.

A senior official told NDTV that all 40 workers are safe and are being supplied oxygen through a pipe. “Everyone is safe, we are in constant touch with the trapped workers,” Prashant Kumar said.

Mr Kumar said that communication has been established with the trapped workers and they have been sent water and food items.

He said that the collapsed portion of the tunnel is located about 200 metres from the entrance and about 20 metres of the slab has been removed so far to open the tunnel.

“The team is removing the debris using excavators and other heavy machines,” he said.

The tunnel is meant to connect Silkyara to Dandalgaon in Uttarakhand’s Uttarkashi. It is being built under the Char Dham Road Project and aims to reduce the journey from Uttarkashi to Yamunotri Dham by 26 kilometres.

Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami yesterday said that he has been briefed about the rescue operation. “I have been in contact with the officials from the time I got to know about the incident. NDRF and SDRF are at the spot. We pray to God for the safe return of everybody,” he said.

The European Union on Sunday condemned Hamas for using “hospitals and civilians as human shields” in Gaza, while also urging Israel to show “maximum restraint” to protect civilians.

Hospitals in the north of the Palestinian enclave are blockaded by Israeli forces and barely able to care for those inside, according to medical staff. Gaza’s largest and second largest hospitals, Al Shifa and Al-Quds, said they were suspending operations.

Israel says Hamas has placed command centres under and near hospitals and it needs to get at them to free around 200 hostages the militants took in Israel in an attack just over a month ago. Hamas has denied using hospitals in this way.

“The EU condemns the use of hospitals and civilians as human shields by Hamas,” European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a statement issued on behalf of the 27-nation bloc. “Civilians must be allowed to leave the combat zone.”

At the same time, he urged Israel to exercise maximum restraint, stressing the obligation under international humanitarian law to protect hospitals, medical supplies and civilians inside hospitals.

“These hostilities are severely impacting hospitals and taking a horrific toll on civilians and medical staff,” Borrell warned.

“Hospitals must … be supplied immediately with the most urgent medical supplies, and patients that require urgent medical care need to be evacuated safely,” he added. “In this context, we urge Israel to exercise maximum restraint to ensure the protection of civilia

A Jewish school in Montreal was fired on Sunday for the second time this week as tensions remain high in Canada over the Israel-Hamas war, police said.

Police spokeswoman Veronique Dubuc said no one was in Yeshiva Gedola when shots were heard around 5:00 am (1000 GMT), and there were no reported injuries.

Officers discovered bullet damage to the building’s facade and found cartridges on the ground, Dubuc said.

The incident took place only two days after that school and another Jewish school in Montreal, Canada’s second-largest city, were fired upon, also without casualties.

“The fact that people took the liberty to attack the same target more than once demonstrates the situation’s seriousness,” school spokesman Lionel Perez said during a press conference, adding that classes would continue as usual.

Earlier in the week, a Montreal synagogue suffered minor damage in a firebombing, and three students were injured when pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel groups clashed at the city’s Concordia University.

Both Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Francois Legault, the premier of French-speaking Quebec province, have condemned the violence.

“Let’s not import the hatred and violence that we see elsewhere in the world,” Legault posted on X, formerly Twitter, adding that “all effort will be made to find and punish those guilty.”

Montreal’s Mayor Valerie Plante condemned the “odious gesture” and urged residents to “absolutely fight anti-Semitism.”

“We will not accept Montreal being the scene of such acts,” she said on X.

Several countries around the word, notably in Europe, have seen attacks on Jewish targets amid the intense Israeli strikes on Gaza in response to the bloody October 7 attack by militants of the Palestinian group Hamas.

Some 1,200 people in Israel, most of them civilians, were killed that day, Israeli authorities say.

Health authorities in Gaza say more than 11,100 people, including many children, have died in Israel’s bombardment of the Palestinian territory.