New Delhi, September 24: Rescuers used heavy cranes and saws to free more than a dozen people still trapped in the rubble of a large chimney that collapsed at a power plant under construction in central India, killing at least 14 people, police said Thursday.
R.K. Vij, inspector-general of police, revised the death toll to 14 from the figure of 20 that was given earlier by police, and said another seven people were hospitalized. All 14 bodies have been recovered.
“There was some confusion about the number of dead and the injured” soon after Wednesday’s accident, Vij told The Associated Press.
Vij said at least 20 workers were still trapped in the rubble at the construction site in Korba, nearly 600 miles (960 kilometers) southeast of New Delhi.
The 250-foot (75-meter) chimney came crashing down in the plant’s cafeteria as construction workers had tea, said Vishwa Ranjan, the director-general of police in Chhattisgarh state, where the accident occurred.
About 300 people were working at the time, the Press Trust of India news agency said. It was unclear how many were in the cafeteria.
The cause of the accident was not immediately known. Raman Singh, the top elected official of Chhattisgarh state, ordered a probe into the accident, PTI said.
—Agencies