2 men with earthmovers trapped under boulders for over a day

Two workers have been trapped under a heap of boulders along with their earthmoving machines for over 24 hours in Odisha's Koraput district, police said today.

The incident occurred yesterday evening when the two were working with earthmovers at a government project in Bariput village and the rain soaked earth caved in trapping them under a mound of boulders.

Even though 24 hours have passed after the incident, the administration has not been able to rescue them.

"Efforts are on to recover the trapped persons," Sub-divisional Police Officer Uddhav Charan Nayak.

Fire brigade personnel reached the spot soon after receiving the information but failed to rescue the victims due to darkness of the night, a fire brigade official said.

"Rescue operations started this morning by a joint team of ODRAF (Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force) and fire brigade officials. A blast could have been an easy option to clear the heap but that could endanger their lives," he said.

The soil in the area got wet and loose due to heavy rain on Wednesday night and the earth caved in while the two were working at the base of a mound of boulders, Nayak said.

The workers, identified as Ghanashyam Guru and Sanjay Das, got stuck and the pile of boulders came down on them, the SDPO said.

They were using the earthmoving machines to remove boulders in the Telingiri irrigation project, he said.