Ranchi/Jamshedpur, June 19: Bodies of the two schoolboys who were trapped for over 22 hours under soil after a well collapsed due to heavy rain in Jharkhand’s Khunti district were recovered on Thursday, an official said.
A 10-year-old girl was also killed after a mud house in Ranchi district caved in during the day, police said.
As rain continued to lash various parts of the state, a bridge and an abandoned residential building also collapsed in different districts, while several rivers were in spate. No casualty was reported in these incidents.
The two schoolboys, aged nine and 10 years, were near the under-construction well at Murhu panchayat under Murhu police station limits when it collapsed around 2 pm on Wednesday.
A team of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) had been deployed in the rescue operation, Khunti Deputy Commissioner R Ronita told PTI.
The rescue operation continued since Wednesday night and the bodies of the two boys were found around 12.30 pm on Thursday, an official said.
A 10-year-old girl also died after her mud house collapsed in heavy rain at Murpa village under Tamar police station area in Ranchi district.
She was alone in the house when it collapsed, police said.
A portion of a bridge on the Banai River in Khunti’s Torpa also collapsed due to heavy rain, blocking the Khunti-Simdega road.
Ronita said a diversion was created there and the NDRF team also deployed at that spot.
Heavy rain lashed several districts including Ranchi, Seraikela-Kharswan and East Singhbhum, throwing normal life out of gear.
Schools in several districts including Ranchi and Khunti have been closed on Thursday in view of the heavy rains.
Ranchi has been witnessing incessant rains for the past two days and its intensity has increased since Thursday morning, a weather official said.
An abandoned residential building belonging to Tayo Rolls Company, a subsidiary of Tata Steel, collapsed on Thursday morning at Gamharia in Seraikela-Kharsawan district.
In a statement, Tata Steel said the building had earlier been vacated, barricaded and declared unsafe for habitation.
An alert has been sounded in the steel city of Jamshedpur in view of the swelling of rivers Kharkhai and Swarnarekha due to incessant rains for the last two days.
The water level of both rivers reached near the danger mark, an official statement on Thursday said.
The East Singhbhum district administration asked the people living in catchment areas along two rivers to be alert.
Deputy director at Ranchi Meteorological Centre Abhishek Anand said a red alert of extremely heavy rainfall has been sounded for Ranchi, Lohardaga, Gumla, Khunti and Simdega as a low pressure system is laying over northeast Jharkhand. (PTI)
