According to the police, the deceased in Pokhara have been identified as Manmaya Nepali, 40, Goma Adhikari, 39, and Gita BK, 36, of Puranchaur. While Manmaya and Goma died on the spot, Gita breathed her last while being rushed to the Western Regional Hospital. [break]
The other injured are undergoing treatment. One of them, Shanti Poudel, is said to be in a critical condition.
The dead were apparently inside the cave created as a result of excavation of red soil. They were passing on soil to their fellow villagers when the mound all of a sudden collapsed.
“The women died due to suffocation,” police inspector Bishwa Raj Adhikari said. Others managed to survive as they were not completely inside the cave. They have sustained injuries on their head, hands and legs.
According to Rama Banstola, one of the injured, the accident took place when they were busy in competing to get more soil. “I had collected enough soil for me,” she recounted. “when I was getting more for my sister, the heap collapsed.”
Locals had been excavating red soil there for over the past 15 years. They had gone there early morning, for there were rumors that the excavation site was set to be bull-dozed in the afternoon. “All of us went there at once out of fear of losing chances of collecting red soil,” Sita BK, the sister-in-law of Gita, said.
In Sunsari, Sita Ramtel, 40, of Barahachhetra VDC, died Sunday morning as a mound of soil collapsed over her while she was collecting red soil for household purpose. She breathed her last on the spot. Two women, Anita Rai and Phul Maya Rai, have sustained injuries in the incident. They are undergoing treatment in Dharan.
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