Four held for damaging stone pillars at Hampi
Bengaluru: Days after a carved stone pillar was vandalised at the UNESCO world heritage site at Hampi in Karnataka, four youth were arrested Thursday for their involvement in the incident, police said.
"We have arrested all the four people who damaged the historic monuments," superintendent of police of Ballari district, Arun Rangarajan told PTI.
The four vandals work in Bengaluru, police sources said. The incident had triggered statewide outrage after a video of it went viral.
"While three of them felled the pillars, the fourth one shot the video," the Ballari police said in a statement.
Following the incident, water resources minister D K Shivakumar had said the state government would not tolerate any act of causing damage to historical sites and stern action would be taken against the culprits.
Locals had staged a protest, demanding that adequate security be provided to the monuments.
Recently, the erstwhile capital of Vijayanagar empire- Hampi- known for its rich architecture, was listed second on the New York Times list of 52 must-go sites in the world.
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Bridge portion collapses on Jammu outskirts; 3-4 labourers feared trapped, 1 rescued
Jammu (PTI): A portion of a small bridge collapsed in the Bantalab area on the outskirts of Jammu city on Friday, trapping at least three to four labourers under the debris, while one injured worker was rescued, official sources said.
Authorities have closed the road link following the collapse of the portion of the bridge.
The incident occurred when labourers were carrying out repair work on a retaining wall near the bridge that was damaged in last year's flash floods, the sources said.
According to the sources, a section of the bridge suddenly gave way, burying workers engaged at the site under the rubble.
Police, Army and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) teams launched rescue operations to extricate those buried under the debris. They pulled out one injured labourer and shifted him to a hospital, the sources said.
Family members of the labourers present at the site said around six workers engaged at the site at the time of the incident came under the debris when the structure collapsed. The family members said while two of the labourers managed to escape, four got trapped.
The sources said those trapped included the husband of a woman labourer, a mason, an unmarried labourer and a relative of the contractor.
There was no official confirmation on the exact number of persons trapped under the debris till the filing of this report.
The rescue operations are ongoing.
