Tamil Nadu: 2 workers buried alive in landslide while laying underground pipeline in Sattur

VIRUDHUNAGAR: At least two contract employees were buried alive due to a landslide while they were carrying out the works of laying underground drainage (UGD) pipelines at Sattur in Tamil Nadu's Virudhunagar district in the early hours of Sunday.
The deceased workers were identified as N Sakthivel (40) and K Krishnamoorthy (52), both residents of Kallakurichi district.
According to police, a private company from Andhra Pradesh has been carrying out the UGD works in Sattur town since 2019, by employing as many as 35 contract employees.
On Saturday night, around seven employees including Sakthivel and Krishnamoorthy were working at Mukkurandhal area in Sattur town. At around 12.50am on Sunday, when Sakthivel and Krishnamoorthy went inside the nearly 9-foot deep pit to connect the pipelines, they were buried under the pit due to a landslide.
Upon receiving information about the incident, the fire and rescue officials rushed to the spot. After nearly two hours, their bodies were recovered from the pit and were sent to the Virudhunagar medical college hospital for postmortem. The Sattur Town police have registered a case and are conducting investigations into the incident.