Five labourers, including four women and a teenage boy, were buried alive and two injured when a huge portion of soil caved in, while they were digging up foundation for construction of a private school building, at 4th lane of Donka Road, here today. Police said about ten labourers were digging up trench to construct a concrete beam in about 30 feet depth. The huge soil, which was dug up earlier, was dumped on ground and it caved in on the workers, burying them alive.
Earlier, the officials feared that six people were killed in the mishap but later confirmed that five labourers were killed. All the five bodies were extricated from the soil. The deceased were identified as K Llakshmi (24) Varalakshmi (24), D Padma(22) V Nagamani (23) and Venkateswara Rao (18). It took more than four hours to the officials to extricate the bodies from the soil as they could not use earth movers, fearing that it might cause further damage.
District Collector V N Vishnu announced Rs 25,000 each as compensation to the bereaved families to meet immediate requirements. Meanwhile, Corporation Commissioner K Sudhakar said the management of the school had not taken required permission for the construction of the structure. They did not follow engineering methods to carry out the work either, he said. The Commissioner suspended the Building Inspector for dereliction of duty and ordered to take action against city planning officer.