A daily wage labourer from Erode died in Chennai after a pile of soil caved in while he was laying a Metrowater pipeline on Muktha Munnisa Begum Street off Ellis Road in Triplicane, reported The Times of India.
The deceased, Gurusamy (46), is reportedly a native of Bhavani in Erode district. He was working for a contractor who was asked to lay the Metrowater pipeline. The incident is said to have taken place around 6pm when the soil from the top fell on Gurusamy and he was buried under it.
The residents of the area were trying to help Gurusamy and alerted the police about the incident. Police personnel from Triplicane police station with fire and rescue department rushed to the spot. A police officer told TOI that they had managed to remove all the loose soil which was on top of the man and his face was exposed to fresh air.
However, one of his legs was stuck under the pipeline and it took them half an hour to lift him out. After he was pulled out, he was immediately sent to Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital where doctors declared him brought dead.
Police said that the Metrowater pipeline work was going on for the last one week and the place where the accident happened was narrow stretch. A police officer said that due to the recent rains, the soil had become loose and Gurusamy got trapped under it while trying to dig the earth to lay the pipeline. However, there were five more contract workers on the same street who were removing all the soil which Gurusamy was digging out, reported ToI.
In April this year, a 30-year-old man had lost his life after he entered a sewage tank to rescue his colleague who was stuck inside the tank, in Mogappair East, Chennai. He was working on contract basis with the Chennai Metrowater department.