A shocking video from Kalladi in Wayanad shows a huge mound of mud sliding down onto a road and bridge as several people, including women, scramble to outrun it, according to PTI. “Run fast, friends. Take a photo,” an eyewitness is heard saying in the brief clip, which was aired on television channels and shot from beyond the bridge.
The mud, PTI reported, had accumulated near the Meenakshi Bridge at Kalladi as part of an ongoing tunnel road project connecting Kozhikode and Wayanad districts. Heavy rain caused the mound to slide suddenly, uprooting trees and tearing down the metal and cloth barricades set up at the construction site.
Visuals Show Narrow Escapes as Mud Sweeps Over Bridge
The visuals showed the mudslide spilling onto the road and surging over the bridge like a wave, dragging along a parked tanker lorry, all the way to the other side, where several shops were located, PTI reported.
A CCTV clip from one of these shops captured several people, including a woman, attempting to run ahead of the mud, only for it to slam into them and the lorry, dragging them across to the far end of the bridge, the report said. The lorry then crashed into a jeep parked nearby. Visuals subsequently showed a man and a woman who had been caught in the landslide emerging from the gap between the two vehicles, completely covered in mud but alive, according to PTI. A few other men were also seen limping away, coated in mud.
People near the shops fled the moment they saw the mud breaking through the barricades, PTI reported. The visuals also showed a private bus, reportedly used to transport workers to the construction site, being pushed by the landslide into a nearby river. It was later found lying half-submerged, with water flowing through it.
Later visuals showed the bridge and the surrounding area buried under thick layers of mud, as rescue personnel worked to determine whether anyone remained trapped beneath it, PTI reported. Police and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams have been deployed for the rescue operation.
According to PTI, the tunnel project connecting Anakkampoyil and Meppadi began last year and links the Kozhikode and Wayanad districts.
