Ankola landslide: No survivor or truck found under accumulated mud, search ops continues
Ankola: No survivor or truck was found under the accumulated mud on the road following a massive landslide in Shirur village in Uttara Kannada district and the focus has now shifted to the Gangavalli river to trace the three missing people, including a driver from Kerala, officials said on Monday.
Seven bodies have been recovered so far since the incident on July 16, they said.
In a statement, Karnataka Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda said that the operation at the Shirur landslide site is continuing.
"The search under the accumulated mud on the road is almost complete. We have not found any survivor or truck. While we have been carrying out operations in the river and open water, the focus is now more on the Gangavalli river. Every lead on the river front is being pursued. Deep divers are trying to locate the truck cabin," he said.
According to him, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF), Fire and Emergency Services and Navy are continuing the operations on land and water.
The Indian Army Humanitarian Aid and Disaster Relief Team comprising an officer, two Junior commissioned officers and 55 others of Maratha Light Infantry Regiment, Belagavi and one Junior commissioned officer and two others from College of Military Engineering, Pune are also engaged in the operations, he said.
Besides the rescue apparatuses already in the field, the army team has specialised tools including ground penetration radars, deep search metal detectors, rafts with overboard motors and specialised climbing equipment.
"The 29 members of NDRF, 42 of SDRF, 12 deep divers from Indian Navy and teams from the Fire and Emergency department of the state are in active deployment in the search operations," he said.
Vehicular traffic has been temporarily suspended on National Highway 66 following the landslide.
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Pakistan reports two more polio cases; Total tally now 52
ISLAMABAD: At least two more cases of poliovirus were reported in Pakistan, taking the number of infections to 52 so far this year, a report said on Friday.
“The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health has confirmed the detection of two more wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases in Pakistan," an official statement said.
The fresh infections — a boy and a girl — were reported from the Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
“Genetic sequencing of the samples collected from the children is underway," the statement read. Dera Ismail Khan, one of the seven polio-endemic districts of southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has reported five polio cases so far this year.
Of the 52 cases in the country this year, 24 are from Balochistan, 13 from Sindh, 13 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.
There is no cure for polio. Only multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine and completion of the routine vaccination schedule for all children under the age of five can keep them protected.
