Worker rescued from water pipe after 7 hrs

A 55-year-old worker, who got stuck in a narrow water supply pipe here on Thursday morning, was rescued after almost seven hours of struggle by teams from Orissa Disaster Rapid Action Force and the fire department.

The worker, identified as Pranakrushna Muduli of Deulasahi colony in Cuttack, was rushed to a hospital where his condition was stated to be normal, said district emergency officer Prabodh Rout.

Sudden water discharge

Eyewitnesses said Muduli was clearing some blockage inside the 2.5 ft wide pipe near Tulasipur pump house here around 7.30 a.m. when all of a sudden water started gushing into the pipe pushing him deep inside, trapped under thick concrete. A pump house staff, not knowing that a worker was inside the pipe, had switched on the pump.

Civil authorities soon requisitioned the services of ODRAF and fire brigade personnel. Reaching the spot, the rescue teams established contact with Muduli, who by that time had slipped more than 20 ft deep into the pipeline. While the concrete around the pipe was being removed, the personnel kept continuous contact with Muduli.

“After struggling for nearly seven hours to remove the concrete around the pipeline, we rescued the worker around 3 p.m. He appeared very nervous and shocked being trapped inside the pipeline for so many hours,” said the district chief fire officer Sukant Sethy.

The rescue operation was monitored by District Collector Sushant Mohapatra, who ordered a departmental probe into the incident.