Kolkata: West Bengal's Purulia district authorities have sought the assistance of the Army and the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) in rescuing those suspected to be trapped while illegally extracting coal from an abandoned mine that was submerged under water after its walls caved in five days ago.

Though there has been no official report of any casualty so far, the district administration is not discounting the possibility of people being trapped inside the pit. The authorities have written to the Army's Eastern Command headquarters in Kolkata and the zonal office of the Deputy Inspector General, CISF, for assistance in operations, District Magistrate, Purulia, D. Bandhopadhyay, told The Hindu over telephone on Sunday. Villagers lodged a complaint at Neturia thana that ten persons were missing. It is yet to be ascertained whether the missing persons were engaged in mining when the pit was submerged, Mr. Bandhopadhyay said.

Rescue operations by personnel of the Eastern Coalfield Limited were hampered by water gushing into the coal pit from the Damodar river.

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