Nine people who were trapped in hydroelectric plant fire in India's Telangana dead - UPDATED

Nine people who were trapped in hydroelectric plant fire in India
# 21 August 2020 19:08 (UTC +04:00)

All nine people who were reported to be trapped in a massive fire that broke out at a hydroelectric plant in India's Telangana are dead, officials revealed on Friday, APA reports citing Sputnik.

Nine bodies have been recovered from the site located at the Srisailam Dam, and three of them have been identified as site engineers.

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A rescue operation is underway in order to save nine people feared trapped inside an hydroelectric power station in India's Telangana several hours after a major fire broke out, APA reports citing Sputnik.

The incident occurred late Thursday night, when 19 people were doing their shift at the facility and a massive fire broke out at the Telangana State Power Generation Corporation Limited's hydroelectric station at Srisailam Dam.

While 10 people managed to escape death, nine others remain trapped inside. The injured survivors were rushed to a nearby hospital, media reports said.

Meanwhile, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) along with teams of local firemen are working on the rescue mission.

Telangana's Energy Minister Jagadish Reddy and Agriculture Minister Niranjan Reddy along with Prabhakar Rao, the chairman and managing director of Telangana Transco which is the operator of the hydroelectric plant, have been at the accident site since last night.

"Why it happened has to be investigated. How much damage has happened we will know only after the smoke goes away. Our priority right now is to rescue those trapped inside", media reports quoted Rao as saying. He said such an accident has never happened before at the plant.

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