Search operations continued on Thursday at an opencast coal mine of Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL) in Odisha’s Talcher where three workers are feared trapped.
A 30-member National Disaster Response Force team is trying to trace the workers under massive heaps of coal and debris.
Rescue operations have been affected due to intermittent rain.
Mound collapse
The accident had taken place around 11 p.m. on Tuesday when a portion of an earthen mound caved in and trapped several workers. While nine persons were rescued, one body was recovered.
The public sector firm had said that labourers working on the night shift at Bharatpur opencast mine in Talcher Coalfields had come under a dump slide due to a strata failure.
MCL (Technical/Operations) director O.P. Singh said sincere efforts were being made to trace the trapped workers.
The incident was also raised in the State Assembly with Senior Congress leader Narasingha Mishra saying that the MCL authorities should be taken to task for their laxity, apart from giving adequate compensation to the kin of the victims.
