One killed, several injured as building foundation caves in

​Amaravati: One construction worker was killed and as many as seven workers were reportedly trapped when massive mounds of soil caved in on them while they were digging foundation for a multi-storied building at Lakshmipuram area in Guntur city on Saturday.

Police said that as many as eight workers were working in the foundation, being dug up for the construction of cellar for the building complex. The body of the deceased was pulled out from the heaps of rubble in a rescue operation to extricate the trapped workers. Two trapped workers were pulled out and shifted to hospital until last reports came in.

Large number of relatives of the workers tried to go to the accident site, but was prevented by the police. Upon learning about the incident, Social Welfare Minister R Kishore Babu rushed to the site. The irate workers pelted stones on his car damaging its windscreen, however, the Minister escaped by a whisker.

Deputy Chief Minister Nimmakayala Chinarajappa expressed shock over the death of construction workers. He started from Tadepalligudem to Guntur city as soon as he received the information.

Meanwhile, utter confusion prevailed at the accident site as neither the construction engineers nor the officials had any information as to how many workers were trapped in the soil.

As the incident took place on a busy road, traffic came to a standstill as hundreds of onlookers thronged the accident site.

District Collector Kantilal Dande, Guntur rural SP Tripathi and large number of revenue, police, and fire brigade officials rushed to the spot.