2 labourers killed in tunnel cave-in in Madhya Pradesh

Two labourers were killed and seven were rescued after an under-construction tunnel caved in at Sleemanabad in Madhya Pradesh's Katni district, officials said on Sunday.

Rescuers pulled out the bodies of Goralal Kol (30), hailing from Singrauli district in Madhya Pradesh, and Supervisor Ravi Masalkar (26), a native of Nagpur in Maharashtra, from the rubble Sunday night, additional superintendent of police Manoj Kedia said.

Seven of the trapped labourers rescued earlier were admitted to the Katni district hospital, located about 30 km from the spot, and their condition was stated to be fine, officials said.

Nine labourers got trapped after the tunnel of the Bargi dam canal project caved in late Saturday night in Sleemanabad, located about 450 km from the state capital Bhopal.

Madhya Pradesh Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Rajesh Rajora who monitored the rescue operation from Bhopal told PTI that teams of the National Disaster Response Force and the State Disaster Emergency Response Force and other personnel took part in the rescue efforts.

Earlier, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan spoke to the Katni district collector and the superintendent of police about the incident.

Chouhan directed officials to make arrangements for providing treatment to the injured labourers, Rajora said.