Eight people were trapped after a section of a tunnel collapsed at the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) project in Telangana, with rescue operations in full swing to extricate them, the state government confirmed. 

Telangana Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy, speaking from the accident site in Nagarkurnool district, about 150 km from Hyderabad, said the state government is seeking assistance from experts who handled a similar rescue in Uttarakhand last year, along with support from the Indian Army and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF). 

Among the trapped are two engineers from an infrastructure firm, two operators from a US-based company, and four labourers. They hail from Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Punjab, and Jammu and Kashmir. 

(PTI)