GUWAHATI: A possibly lone survivor among 22 people on board a truck that plunged into a gorge in a remote location of Arunachal Pradesh Monday night clambered out of the wreckage, climbed 200m and trudged nearly 4km to reach a BRO camp late Wednesday to report the tragedy almost 48 hours later.The victims – 19 bodies had been retrieved until Thursday evening – were all labourers from Assam being ferried to a site in Anjaw district, bordering China, when the accident occurred along Hayuliang-Chaglagam Road. Army teams continue to search for the other two workers.
Cops, NDRF men worked for hrs to locate wreckage of truck, bodies
It wasn’t immediately clear if the critically injured survivor included the truck driver among the 22 that he said were involved in the crash, officials said. He has been shifted to Assam Medical College and Hospital in Dibrugarh, around 260km from Hayuliang.Nang Chingni Choupoo, in charge of the Anjaw district disaster management department, told TOI that Army teams used ropes to descend into the deep gorge and trace the wreckage. The 19 bodies found so far are still to be brought up.”Since the Army personnel do not have specialised equipment to carry the bodies, an NDRF team from Dibrugarh is being sent there with the required equipment. The operation will resume Friday morning,” Choupoo said. “For now, we are assuming there were 22 people, unless the driver wasn’t counted. The mangled truck lies upside down and rescuers need to cut through the metal to determine if anyone is trapped inside.”The Assam govt has deputed a joint team of the Tinsukia civil and police administration to travel to the area and coordinate with Army and Arunachal Pradesh officials. The nearest camp, which the injured survivor reached, belongs to the General Reserve Engineer Force under which BRO operates. Chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said both states were working closely to rescue survivors, if any, and get the victims’ bodies home.Defence PRO Lt Col M Rawat said multiple search and rescue columns of the Army, medical teams, GREF representatives, local police and NDRF personnel worked for hours to locate the wreckage and the bodies.Initial reports suggested the workers were from Tinsukia and travelling to Chaglagam for work. The road where the accident occurred is steep and has a single lane.
