Five die as earth caves in on road

Earth and rubble that caved in over the road in a landslip at Cheeyappara on the Kochi-Dhanushkodi road 

Landslips triggered by heavy downpour claimed six lives in the high range Idukki district of Kerala on Monday.

Five persons were killed and many others are feared buried under rubble after the earth caved in over vehicles and shops at Cheeyappara, near Kothamangalam, on the Kochi-Munnar road on Monday.

The bodies of the five persons were recovered from under the rubble.

In separate landslips elsewhere in Idukki district since Sunday night, eight others were killed, taking the toll to 13. Four persons who were rescued at Cheeyappara were rushed to the Adimaly government hospital. The condition of one of them is stated to be serious.

Search and rescue operations are under way despite heavy rain that has made the effort extremely difficult.

Those killed in the landslip were Rajan, driver at the Devikulam taluk office; Thoppilkudy Josy, and Palakkad resident Jibin and two unidentified persons.

Those trapped in the mass of rubble that crashed down from a height of around 20 feet included tourists who had stopped over to watch rescue operations following an earlier landslip, and rescue workers, who were engaged in clearing the road.

A mini tourist bus, a jeep belonging to the revenue department and a few motor cycles were buried in the rubble from the landslip or swept away in the flash floods that followed in its wake.

Police and Fire and Rescue Service personnel from Adimaly and Neriyamangalam, with the support of the local people, are continuing the rescue operations. The landslip occurred between 7.30 a.m. and 8 a.m., said Janardhanan, a casual worker with the National Highways Authority.

He said that he was clearing the debris of a minor landslip near here when the second one occurred. He rushed to the spot to find that an entire hill had caved in, completely blocking the road. Hasainar, a driver, one of those who reached the spot first, said that he could not initially comprehend what had happened as out of the nearly 20 shops in the area, 10 were buried beneath the rubble.

Aliyar, a fire and rescue service personnel, said that the human toll could have been reduced had the tourist vehicles not halted to watch the first landslip. It was during that time that the hill caved in over their vehicles.

It was a tough time for the police to control the bulging crowd which reached the area. The continuing rain also hampered the rescue operations.

In a landslip at Thadiayanpadu near Cheruthoni, two sisters were killed when earth caved in on their house.

3 killed, 11 hurt as building under construction collapses in Kengeri:

Three workers were killed and 11 injured when a building under construction collapsed in Kengeri Satellite Town on Monday morning.

The labourers were constructing a three-storey marriage hall at Bandeswamy Math in Kommagatta. The moulding of the second floor’s ceiling was under way when it collapsed. At least 25 workers were on the roof when the accident occurred at around 10 a.m. Some workers fell from the roof while others on the ground floor were trapped under the debris.

Fire and Emergency Services personnel along with advanced rescue vehicles rushed minutes after the collapse. Officials said three bodies had been removed from the debris while a few injured workers were taken to nearby hospitals.

Labourers at the site said over 100 workers from Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka were at work for the last six months. Some 70 workers were on the ground floor mixing cement and doing other work. Some 25 workers were on the roof. Lalchand (30), one of the labourers injured, toldThe Hindu : “All I remember is that the building collapsed and I was trapped under the debris till some people pulled me out.” The injured were rushed to Rajarajeshwari hospital and Shreya hospital nearby.

The victims have been identified as Venkateshappa (40) from Andhra Pradesh, Shivanna (25) from Gulbarga and Sumit Mondal Khapari (24) from Bihar. Shivanna, who was laying the concrete on the roof, came plummeting down while the other two workers were working on the centring and were trapped underneath the debris.

Police suspect a weak centring led to the collapse. A senior official said the centring was built of wood for a height of 25 feet.

This rendered the building unstable, they said. It was a serious case of negligence on the part of the building authorities, the police added. It is owned by the Eka Bilva Bande Veerashaiva Math.

Cases have been booked under Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) against contractor Krishnamurthy, centring supervisor Murthy, engineer Jagannath Rao and Sachidananda Swami of the Math. Murthy and Krishnamurthy have been arrested.