Rescuers reach tunnel vehicles

Explosions and a huge fire followed the initial crash between two lorries

AIROLO, Switzerland -- Rescuers have managed to reach the wrecked vehicles at the centre of a fatal crash after soaring temperatures in the Alpine tunnel subsided.

The temperatures had soared above 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,800 degrees Fahrenheit) preventing firefighters from reaching many vehicles nearly 24 hours after the accident in the Gotthard Tunnel.

A 300-metre stretch of the roof had collapsed under the intense temperatures, crashing down on an unknown number of vehicles.

But the fire had largely burnt itself out by Thursday, and allowed rescuers to pull out an eleventh body.

The victims, 10 men and one woman, include four Germans and one person each from Luxembourg, Italy, France, and Switzerland. Several of the bodies have not been identified.

Authorities estimate that 100 cars and 15 trucks remain inside the world's second-longest road tunnel.

MORE STORIES Timeline: Past tunnel disasters    RESOURCES Picture gallery: Swiss tunnel fire

Nearly all the victims had died from smoke inhalation, and it is feared the final toll could rise far higher.

Swiss transport officials have increased the number of "missing" by family and friends from 80 to 140. Earlier they had been as high as 200.

"The list of unaccounted for is continuously being revised," Romano Piazzini, police chief of the canton (state) of Ticino, told a news conference.

Piazzini refused to speculate about the number of those killed -- although officials late on Wednesday said it could be around 20.

He said six of the bodies were found on the tarmac as people tried to reach safety, while the remaining four were in their cars.

A bus full of passengers managed to reverse out of the tunnel, as did about 15 trucks.

About 100 cars turned around and left the single-bore, two-lane tunnel. Others escaped via the foot tunnel, Piazzini said.

Disaster struck on Wednesday when two lorries -- one carrying a load of tyres -- collided head on causing a major fire.

Several people were killed by poison gases in their cars, and others as they tried to reach safety shelters, said Benno Buehlemann, a fire chief in the town of Goeschenen at the tunnel's northern end.

The world's second longest tunnel is expected to remain closed for several weeks

"Suddenly there was smoke, and I couldn't see anything," said Marco Frischknecht, a lorry driver interviewed by Swiss television in his hospital bed.

"I tried to reverse, but there were so many people I had to give up.

"I felt my way along the wall until I got to the emergency exit," he said through an oxygen mask.

Among the dead was one of the lorry drivers involved in the initial crash, said Mario Ritter, spokesman for the Ticino state police.

Traffic chaos worsened in the region on Thursday when the main alternative Alpine route, the San Bernardino pass, was shut following an accident between a truck and a bus, in which one person was killed.

The route was later partially re-opened, police told Reuters.

Officials said the Gotthard tunnel's safety features -- including an emergency foot tunnel with its own lighting, air supply and exits running alongside the road tunnel -- helped limit the toll.

The tunnel is on the main route between Germany and Italy and is a vital transit route for trucks passing between northern and southern Europe.

More than 1.2 million trucks and millions more vacationers passed through the tunnel last year.

The Gotthard, which opened in 1980, was the world's longest road tunnel until Norway opened its 24.5-kilometre(15.2-mile) Laerdal Tunnel last year.

Traffic through the Gotthard has increased since the Mont Blanc tragedy. Repair work on the Mont Blanc Tunnel began last year, and it could be reopened later this year.