3 gold diggers die in KGF mine shaft
KOLAR:
Three persons died and two were arrested while attempting to steal gold ore from Mysore Mines in Marikuppam, the oldest mine of Bharat Gold Mines Ltd (BGML) in Kolar district.
According to KGF Superintendent of Police Sujeetha Salman, the bodies of Skanda (55) and Joseph (45) were pulled out from an abandoned sink of the Hankock shaft with the help of fire personnel. The body of Padayappa (24) could not be traced.
The deceased were residents of Doddi in KGF city. Victor and Karthik have been arrested. The Marikuppam police and the fire brigade visited the site.
According to sources, late on Wednesday night a group of five entered the mines. Skanda went down the sink using a rope. Then another went down, followed ten minutes later by a third person.
As soon as he got down to 20 feet, Skanda screamed to the others to pull him up as he was he was having trouble breathing. The others called Skanda’s son Padayappa who rushed to the spot and entered the sink to rescue his father. But he too didn’t resurface.
Fearing the worst, the others informed the police, who rushed to the spot. It is thought that the victims fell into a pit that is about 1,000 feet deep. There have been repeated thefts in the area since the closure of mining operations in 2001.
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