After extricating a decomposed body from the Adaimithippaankulam stone quarry on Monday night, personnel of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the Fire and Rescue Services located one more body under oversized boulders on Tuesday.
With this, the toll in the accident has risen to three. Two persons — earthmover operators Murugan, 40, of Vittilaapuram near Seythunganallur in Thoothukudi district, and J. Vijay, 27, of Naattaarkulam — were saved alive on Sunday morning. Though another earthmover operator S. Selvam, 25, of Idaiyankulam, was extricated alive from the mangled earthmover on Monday, he succumbed to injuries at Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital within an hour.
The operation by the NDRF and the Fire and Rescue Services yielded results at 10.30 p.m. on Monday, 47 hours after the accident, when the rescuers retrieved the body of lorry cleaner Murugan, 23, of Aayankulam near Nanguneri. Since the body had decomposed, it was packed in a plastic bag and sent to Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital for a post-mortem.
The third body was located when the rescuers resumed the operation on Tuesday morning. Since they are under the constant threat of intermittent landslides, a team of geologists from a private firm were brought to inspect the site and the loose soil texture. After inspecting the site in the presence of Superintendent of Police P. Saravanan, the geologists suggested that the operation be carried out with the help of a crane for lifting or removing the boulders heaped on two earthmovers.
While immediate steps were taken to bring the crane from Kudankulam, the iron ropes for lifting the oversized boulders were sourced from VOC Port, Thoothukudi, in the evening.
“Since the ropes used by the NDRF team got damaged, new iron ropes have been brought from the VOC Port,” Collector V. Vishnu said after inspecting the operation.
Meanwhile, NDRF and Fire and Rescue Services personnel manually started removing the boulders with the help of the equipment they had to reach the body.
