RESCUE teams trying to reach 41 construction workers trapped in a collapsed tunnel in northern India for nearly two weeks stopped drilling again today after their boring machine hit a new metal obstruction in rock debris.

Disaster management officer Devendra Patwal said it might take the rescuers several hours to cut the metal object and resume the final phase of digging at the accident site in Uttarakhand state.

Mr Patwal said the machine had been stopped after it had drilled about 6.5 feet of the last stretch of 40 feet of rock debris that would open a way out for the trapped workers.