Hyderabad: After a 15-day-long operation to trace eight missing people in the partially collapsed SLBC tunnel, the team has retrieved the body of one deceased individual from under 10 feet of silt.

Earlier in the day, cadaver dogs from Kerala had identified a possible spot for human presence under the rubble. The specially trained dogs identified human presence at the D-2 point about 100 meters from the accident site in the final stretch of the 14-km-long tunnel. The rescue workers were carefully excavating silt at the identified location. Some of the missing persons are likely to be traced by evening.

The team also reportedly found human parts of a person six feet under the debris on Saturday night. They were carrying out digging work around the location to pull out the body. Two dogs trained to locate missing humans and human bodies were brought from Kerala by a special helicopter three days ago. According to officials, these dogs of the Belgian Malinois breed can detect smell even from a depth of 15 feet.

Eight persons have been trapped in the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) project tunnel since February 22, when a portion of the tunnel roof collapsed during the excavation. Four labourers, two engineers and two machine operators, hailing from Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir, were trapped.

The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Indian Army, Navy, State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), and other agencies have been making efforts to trace.
(With IANS inputs)

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