Two migrant workers were injured after earth caved in at a construction site near Panavila here on Saturday.
A temporary shed and a kitchen collapsed as the land caved in to a considerable depth leaving one of the workers almost fully engulfed by the soil.
While one of the injured workers, Rahul Biswas of Assam, has been admitted to the Thiruvananthapuram Government Medical College Hospital with serious injuries, the other, Deepankar Burman of West Bengal, is receiving treatment at the General Hospital.
The incident occurred at the construction site of a private builder a short distance away from the Model School junction at around 10 a.m. While nearly 70 workers were present on site, Rahul and Deepankar had gone to the kitchen area that functioned adjacent to the shed where they have been accommodated.
A fire force team that rushed to the site from the Rajaji Nagar fire station, after being alerted of the mishap, managed to rescue Deepankar within half an hour. However, it took over another hour to extricate Rahul whose was trapped in mud and debris up to his waist. He suffered a broken arm and head injuries after a concrete slab fell over him.
According to fire station officer Nithin Raj, the rescue operation was a complex one since they could not use any tools or excavator, as it could have led to the workers slipping further into the ditch under its weight.
The lack of a proper retaining wall is suspected to have led to the mishap, he said, while adding a major tragedy could have unfolded if the other workers too had gone to have their meals at the same time.
