The body of one of the nine workers trapped inside a coal mine in Assam's Dima Hasao district was recovered by army divers on Wednesday, the third day of the rescue operations, officials said.
The chances of the survival of the eight others appear grim, though a team of Navy, Army, National Disaster Response Force and State Disaster Response Force personnel intensified their efforts to rescue the trapped miners, the officials said.
The divers located the body of the worker, identified as Ganga Bahadur Srestho from Udaypur district of Nepal, 85 feet below the surface early in the morning.
“His family members have been contacted and the body has been sent for inquest and postmortem,” special director general of police Harmeet Singh said.
A Remotely Operated Vehicle was sent inside the quarry in the morning which spotted the body, following which the divers went in to bring it out, said Singh, who is camping at the site to supervise operations.
A united effort is being made by the navy, army, NDRF, SDRF, ONGC, Coal India and district administration to trace the workers trapped inside.
In the afternoon, the dewatering process with the help of specialised machines began and after the draining of the water, the ROV will be deployed again into the tunnels to locate the other trapped miners, Singh said.
The labourers were on Monday trapped inside the Assam Coal Quarry situated in the 3 Kilo area of Umrangso, around 250 km from Guwahati, after a sudden gush of water flooded the site.
The rescue teams are taking turns to enter the mine, as the operations are underway round-the-clock, the officials said.
A diver said that the body was spotted about 85 feet below the surface, and that the visibility was poor inside with water all around.
“21 Para divers have just recovered a lifeless body from the bottom of the well. Our thoughts and prayers are with the grieving family,” Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma posted on X earlier in the day.
“Meanwhile, SDRF dewatering pumps have departed from Umrangshu for the location. Additionally, the ONGC dewatering pump has been loaded onto an MI-17 helicopter at Kumbhigram, awaiting weather clearance for deployment,” he said in another post.
The CM had on Tuesday said the mine "appears to be illegal", and that the police have arrested one person in connection with the incident.
Sarma also said he had spoken to Coal Minister G Kishan Reddy, who assured him that a team from Coal India will join the rescue operations from Wednesday.
Eyewitness accounts and initial assessments suggest the flooding occurred all of a sudden, probably due to the opening up of an underground water channel.
According to employees of the quarry, there were around 15 workers inside the mine, though the authorities did not confirm the figure.
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