One migrant worker is suspected to have died while two others were rescued with injuries after a concrete slab collapsed atop them while they were cleaning up and increasing the depth of a drain at Shenoy Crossroad near Kaloor on Wednesday afternoon.
All the workers were reportedly from Andhra Pradesh and had been staying in the city for a while though their names were not yet known. It took the firefighters and police nearly two-and-a-half-hour to complete the rescue mission and recover the body of the victim.
All three workers were engaged in cleaning up the drain as part of Operation Breakthrough, a project aimed at reducing flooding in the city when the precariously positioned slab collapsed on them trapping them beneath around 12.40 p.m.
“The wall supporting the slab had already been removed leaving the slab precariously balanced in a pillar-like structure. Their work in the drain would have impacted the base of the structure disrupting the balance resulting in the collapse,” said T.B. Ramakrishnan, station officer, Gandhi Nagar fire and rescue station.
The deceased was completely trapped under the slab leading to his death. The worker first rescued had serious injury to his left leg while the other worker had relatively minor injuries.
Aristotle, the division councillor, said that the slab was very old. “We could not remove the slab as it presented the danger of it further collapsing on the workers. So we chipped an opening through the slab and cut the iron rods to reach the workers using a demolition hammer and rescued the two. However, we could not save the other,” said Mr. Ramakrishnan.
Doctors who were already summoned to the scene gave first aid to the rescued workers and rushed them to Ernakulam General Hospital.
The regional Fire Officer and District Fire Officer led the rescue mission.