Six bodies recovered after fire hits electricity plant in south India

Hyderabad: The bodies of six of the nine people trapped inside a fire-hit underground hydro electric plant of Srisailam project have been recovered, Telangana energy minister Jagadish Reddy confirmed on Friday. Rescue teams are still searching for the remaining three.

Reddy said 30 workers were at the plant in Srisailam when a blaze hit on Thursday night.

Fifteen exited through a tunnel and another six workers were taken out by rescue teams, he said.

One of the bodies was identified as Assistant Engineer of Power Generation Corporation Sunder.

Officials feared that the chances of finding survivors were dim.

Rescuers from the National Disaster Relief Force joined the search operation at the plant located at a river dam, nearly 220 kilometers (140 miles) south of Hyderabad, the state capital.

The cause of the fire was not immediately known.

“Such an accident was never seen in the past. We are trying to establish the cause of the fire”, said Prabhakar Rao, Chairman and Managing Director of Telangana State Power Generation Corporation.

Chief Minister K Chandrasekha Rao expressed shock over the incident and said that the government will take care of their families by extending generous financial assistance.

In July, five workers were killed and 16 injured when a boiler exploded at a government-run electricity plant at Neyveli in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.