National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) on Thursday morning resumed its search for the four labourers who were trapped under a mass of soil and concrete that moved during the the construction of an inner retaining wall of a well on a farmland in Indapur taluka of Pune district. The search was set to continue throughout the Thursday night and early hours of Friday, officials said, with no sign of the four missing persons, till the last reports came in. NDRF officials have earlier said there was no possibility of having survivors among those trapped under the debris. The incident had taken place on Tuesday evening in Mhasaobawadi village in Indapur taluka of Pune district, located around 120 kilometers from Pune City. After requisition from the State Disaster Management Authority and Pune District Disaster Management Officer, an NDRF team was deployed and launched a search operation around 6 am on Wednesday. Till the time the operation was called off around 7 pm in the evening on Wednesday, none of the four labourers had been located. A senior NDRF official said, "The operation resumed on Thursday morning. We initially pumped out the water accumulated inside the well, on one side of the dug up area. After that we will moved to the remaining mound of soil and concrete. The search will continue uninterrupted till the time trapped persons are located." Officials said that the incident took place sometime before 6 pm on Tuesday but came to light only around 8.30 pm on the same night when the family members of the four labourers and other villagers came searching for them. Pune Rural Police have identified the four labourers as Somnath Laxman Gaikwad (34), Javed Akbar Mulani (34), Parshuram Bansilal Chavan (30) and Manoj Maruti Sawant (50). The NDRF has said that the excavation of the soil with earthmovers was a high risk operation considering the loosened mass of soil due to rains. Deputy Superintendent with Pune Rural Police Ganesh Ingale said, "We are providing all the possible assistance to the NDRF rescuers who have decided to continue the search throughout the night."
