About 400 workers were trapped by a flood on Monday morning while working in a railway tunnel in Northeast China's Liaoning province.

The workers — more than 300 from a construction team of a high-speed railway project and nearly 100 from a team working in a local water supply project — were trapped at about 9:40 am in a tunnel in the Qiaotou township of Benxi city, China National Radio reported on Monday morning.

The tunnel was submerged by a flood triggered by heavy rain. The water was 2 meters deep, making it difficult for the workers to escape, said the report.

Firefighters arrived at about 10:20 am and started rescue operations, a female worker from the Benxi firefighters team told China Daily on Monday morning.