Pictures showed HS2 launching a 316-tonne machine component that will dig its way under west London.

A crane was seen lowering part of the massive Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) into the ground, with HS2 emblazoned on the side.

This TBM is set to dig 3.4 miles of dirt beneath the capital.

The 7.10 metre tall and 19 metres long white cylinder is a 316-tonne shield for the machine.

It will protect workers from shards of rock as it whirls through the ground from Victoria Road Crossover Box, Ealing, to Greenpark Way, Greenford.

Once it Greenford, it will link up with the five-mile tunnel currently being excavated from West Ruislip, known as the Northolt Tunnel, built by another TBM.

Several other TBM parts are being winched underground in Old Oak Common, west London, which is promised to become "the best-connected and largest new railway station ever built in the UK."

This comes after PM Rishi Sunak announced last week that he was scrapping the Manchester leg of the HS2 project.

Each TBM will be officially named on 23 October.

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