Telangana tunnel collapse BIG update: Body of one trapped person found after over two weeks

In a major development, rescue teams on Sunday found body of a trapped person inside collapsed SLBC tunnel in Telangana.

The body of a person was found after over two weeks. It was buried under silt at a depth of about 10 feet.

Rescue teams have been working to extricate the eight trapped men under the partially collapsed SLBC tunnel. Experts from the NDRF, Indian Army, Navy and other agencies are making relentless efforts to pull them out to safety.

The body was being taken out and moved to a hospital.

"The body has been sent to the Nagarkurnool civil hospital for post mortem and to follow other procedures. The body could be extricated following "very careful" digging and other efforts for more than 48 hours," reported PTI quoting a senior official.

Earlier, the state had government deployed cadaver dogs of Kerala police to look for human presence and the rescue personnel carried out digging at the spots suggested by the canines.

Eight persons —  engineers and labourers — remained trapped in the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) project tunnel since February 22.

On Saturday, Telangana government  decided to deploy robots from March 11 for rescue operations and also to take the cadaver dogs again to look for presence of humans.

The government has decided to deploy robots to avoid any danger to the rescue personnel as the conditions inside the tunnel, including water and slush, posed a challenge.

"The usage of bots for the last 70 mtrs (at the accident site) was discussed with (concerned) agency and robots will be placed and tried from Tuesday onwards, in addition to all the efforts which are being undertaken now," a senior official told PTI.

State Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy, who visited the tunnel site and reviewed the ongoing rescue operation with officials of different organisations, directed authorities to take immediate steps to deploy robots for rescue work as fragments of the damaged TBM posed a danger to the rescue personnel.

— With agency inputs