Workers from the district headquarters Mahendranagar had reached the river to collect sands and boulders along with trucks and tippers, but were entrapped in the middle of the river due to floods in the river triggered by heavy rainfall at around 8:00 pm on Sunday.
Immediately after knowing the situation, the Nepal Police, Armed Police Force, Nepal Army personnel with the help of locals launched a rescue operation. Rescue efforts made for the whole night went in vain due to the floods in the river.
Later, they planned to rescue them with a help of helicopter from the regional headquarters Dipayal, but yet again the plan foiled due to adverse weather.
According to Deputy Superintendent of Police Birkha Bahadur Rawal (District Police Office, Kanchanpur), the workers were rescued with the help of a tube after 16 hours. It took over two hours to rescue the workers. The rescue operation ended only after 10:00 am today.
However, three tippers and two trucks taken to the site to ferry sand and rocks are in the middle of the river. Currently, the flow of water in the river at present is recorded at 162,000 cusecs, DSP Rawal said.
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