Date:22/02/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/02/22/stories/2006022220730100.htm

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Five labourers killed as wall of sump collapses

Staff Reporter

Four others undergoing treatment in a private hospital

TAKING STOCK: Commissioner of Police Ajai Kumar Singh and other officials inspecting the site where five labourers were killed, in Bangalore on Tuesday. — Photo: V Sreenivasa Murthy

BANGALORE: Five labourers were killed and four were injured when the embankment of a huge sump collapsed on them at a construction site in HAL police station limits on Tuesday afternoon. Police said the incident occurred around 3.30 p.m. at Chinnappareddynagar Main Road, off Marthalli, where the Pune-based Rohan Vasant Developers are constructing an apartment complex.

About 15 labourers had dug a deep trench for a drainage pipeline, close to the sump. As they had dug too close to the foundation of the sump, its embankment collapsed. They were trapped under the debris and four of them died on the spot.

Five labourers who were severely injured were rushed to a private hospital. One of them, Nagendra (23), died late in the night.

The names of those killed on the spot were given as Mallesh (22), Ramanjini (21), Leelamma (19) and Bannurswamy (24). Diwakar, Jyothi and Shamili have been admitted in the intensive care unit of the hospital. Their condition is said to be critical. Eresh, who too has been hospitalised, is stable, the police said. The dead and the injured were from Anantapur district in Andhra Pradesh.

Commissioner of Police Ajai Kumar Singh told presspersons that police will take up a case of negligence leading to death against the persons concerned. Though the incident occurred around 3.30 p.m. police were informed at 6.30 p.m.

Asphyxiation

In another incident, two persons died of asphyxiation inside a sump at construction site in Sooladevanahalli police station limits on Tuesday night.

Police said the incident occurred around 7 p.m. at Sarabanhalli on Hesarghatta Road. The labourers had completed construction of the sump on Tuesday evening. Subramani entered the sump through a small opening to inspect the work.

When he did not come out, his sister raised an alarm. One of her neighbours, Sreenivasa, entered the sump to find out what had happened to Subramani. Both of them died of asphyxiation.