Forensic experts search tunnel wreckage

The specialists entered the tunnel early on Monday

Forensic experts have begun examining the wrecked Gotthard road tunnel in the Alps but officials say they do not expect to find any more victims of last week's blaze.

Police have accounted for the drivers of all 23 vehicles involved in the crash in which 11 people died.

"Nobody is missing, unless there were unreported passengers in the vehicles," local police chief Romano Piazzini said.

The final number of victims may even drop, as police said they had not found the body of one of the drivers presumed killed in the crash. It is now thought he could have escaped.

The team of up to 10 specialists spent Monday combing through charred vehicles and rubble in search of victims in the so-called "red zone" - a 50-metre (50-yard) stretch closest to the accident site.

The intensity of the fire brought the tunnel roof down

The blaze started by the accident last Wednesday burned for more than 48 hours at temperatures of up to 1,200C, causing extensive damage to the tunnel.

It will remain closed for several months, say officials.

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Work has begun on building metal supports to shore up the tunnel's weakened ceiling and walls.

Police say checks are having to be made to ensure there is no risk of the fire re-igniting. Air quality checks are also being carried out and the experts were not allowed in until tests for poisons had been completed.

At the area nearest the seat of the fire, vehicles were completely melted, and some welded together.

The blaze sent thick black smoke pouring from the tunnel

The body of the Belgian driver whose vehicle was one of two lorries involved in the head-on collision which sparked the fire has not been recovered.

Police had thought it was impossible that he could have survived, but now say he could have escaped after all.

"We found almost nothing in the cab," Mr Piazzini said. Police will carry out DNA tests for traces of the driver on the cab.

The bodies of the 10 known victims have been removed.

Fears that the number of casualties might be significantly higher had been raised by the large numbers of people reported missing to the police in the immediate aftermath of the accident.

Twenty-eight people are still on the missing list, but police believe it is highly unlikely they were caught up in the fire.

The road tunnel, the second longest in the world, is a key link between north and south Switzerland, but also provides a major transit route for vehicles from northern Europe trying to reach Italy.

Around 19,000 vehicles a day normally use it.

Traffic had increased considerably since the 1999 fire in the Mont Blanc tunnel, which claimed 39 lives.

The tunnel has remained closed ever since, although it is due to reopen to cars on 15 December.

Lorries will be allowed through a few weeks later, though only in one direction.

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