At least three people have been killed and 18 more are missing after the collapse of a half-built tunnel in Hangzhou in eastern China.

Emergency workers are struggling to pump out water which seeped into the tunnel from a nearby river on Saturday.

"There is a slim chance for the survival of trapped workers because of heavy flooding in the crater," Wang Guangrong, spokesman for the rescue team, said on Sunday.

Wang said 19 injured people were sent to a hospital for treatment.

The tunnel is part a new underground railway system which will be ready in 2011.

The collapse left a crater 15 metres deep and 75 metres wide, which several vehicles plunged into. A passenger in a taxi was killed.

Those still missing are believed to be construction workers.

Houses evacuated

The construction company has sent workers to reinforce remaining parts of the tunnel, but the government did not rule out the possibility of further collapses.

Houses around the accident site have been evacuated.

The accident was not the first in the history of China's underground railway systems.

Last year, four construction workers were killed when a subway line built for this year's Beijing Olympics caved in.

Two months later, another accident at a subway construction site in the eastern city of Nanjing killed two workers.

In recent years accidents at bridges, schools, building sites, factories and mines have claimed hundreds of lives.