Rescue efforts yield no results, bodies lay trapped in mine

Panaji, Dec 11 (UNI) Rescue operations failed to yield any concrete result on the third day today, even as army experts were assisting the civic authorities in reclaiming a huge mound of slush that collapsed into an iron ore mine at Tollem in South Goa's Sanguem taluka on Saturday.

A naval helicopter made an aerial survey of the 1000 square metre mound and four proclains were pressed into service to dig the sunken earth and retrieve five bodies suspected to have been buried in the mine.

Quepem sub-divisional police officer Mr Jayaprakash Nagvekar said much headway could not be made into the rescue operation since the retrieval of the water soaked mud is becoming difficult for the proclians to handle.

Meanwhile, the government had suspended the licence of the miner M/s Timblo Minerals Private Limited, pending a magisterial probe into the accident in which only one body has been recovered, whereas five more besides heavy machinery lay entrapped.

BJP opposition leader alleged that the accident exposed the lack of a disaster management plan with the Goa government, inspite of the fact that iron ore mining is the major forex earner for the state.

UNI BM WD DKA KP1742