Three persons, including two members of a family, died in a stone quarry blast in a forest area near Kattaya in Hassan taluk on Monday.
The deceased have been identified as Jagadish, 50, of Mudalakopplu near Kattaya; his son Punith, 23; and Nagaraj, 40, of Dadadahalli in Arkalgud taluk.
They had been to the stone quarry to place explosives to blast the rocks. It is said that as they were handling the explosives, lightning struck causing an accidental blast. Punith, a college student, had accompanied his father for work as it was a holiday. He is survived by his mother and sister. As the news of their death spread, several villagers and family members gathered at their residence in Mudalakopplu.
Hassan tahsildar Shivashankarappa visited the spot. He told presspersons that the incident took place in survey number 53 of Kattaya village. “It is a forest area and nobody has got licence to quarry there,” he said. The villagers said quarrying has been going on in the area for many years. Huge rocks are blasted with the help of explosives to meet the demand for building stones and boulders.
