The disaster piled more tragedy on a year of woe that has shaken Swiss perceptions of their nation as a haven of tranquillity in an uncertain world. 'When it comes to the number of missing, the situation is chaotic,' said Romano Piazzini, police chief in the canton of Ticino on the Italian border. Police said late on Thursday that 128 people were reported missing - up from a figure of 80 given earlier in the day - but added the number could have been inflated by anxious friends and relatives ringing more than one emergency service. Officials warned it could be months before the Gotthard can be reopened, compounding transport problems Italy already faced due to the closure of another tunnel through the Alps - the Mont Blanc - shut since 1999 due to another horrific accident. 'The security of the rescue workers must be the priority,' said local member of parliament Marco Borradori. So choking were the fumes that some of those confirmed dead had been overcome just metres from safety niches.ДЇirst the intense heat and smoke and then the threat of further cave-ins along the 17-km (10-mile) tunnel had kept emergency workers away from the spot where two trucks, one carrying a load of tyres, collided head-on.ДЄs the heat abated, officials said, props were being placed under the roof to let rescue teams get to work. 'It is a true vision of hell,' Swiss President Moritz Leuenberger said on Thursday night after visiting the town of Airolo at the southern exit. Rescue officials said the primary goal was to shore up the tunnel's roof so that it was safe enough to reach the scene of the accident where several vehicles melted in the heat.ДЄ stretch of the roof collapsed in the inferno and officials warned that the Alpine link could be cut for months, severing a major artery linking Italy to northern Europe. There could be anywhere between 10 and 40 charred and crushed vehicles at the heart of the disaster some 1.5 km (one mile) from the southern end of the Gotthard tunnel, police say.

Rescue crews now aim to reach the actual spot where a truck crash sparked the blaze. Some 128 people are still missing after Wednesday's fire that killed at least 11 people. Firefighters finally brought a blaze in the Gotthard Alpine road tunnel under control and started the grim task on Friday of recovering more bodies from the scene of Switzerland's worst tunnel disaster.

Kiss drama tunnel