KOZHIKODE: At least nine plantation workers were killed and three persons injured when the jeep in which they were travelling fell into a deep gorge at Kannothmala near Thalappuzha in Thavinjal panchayat in Kerala's Wayanad district on Friday afternoon.
All the deceased are women workers who were returning home after picking tea leaves in a tea plantation. They were residents of Makkimala.
The jeep was totally damaged in the accident which happened at around 3.45 pm.
Elsy Joy, president of Thavinjal panchayat, said that the jeep fell into the gorge around 30 metres deep while it was negotiating a curve down a steep slope in the road. She said that the workers were returning from a tea plantation in the Venmani area.
After the accident, it was local residents who started rescue operations though they had difficulty in the rescue attempts due to the steep nature of the gorge.
Mananthavady government medical college authorities said that the nine persons were brought dead.
Wayanad district panchayat president Shamsad Marakkar said that all the nine deceased were women plantation workers who had gone to pluck tea leaves and they used to rely on jeeps to go and return to work.
State forest minister A K Saseendran has started off to Wayanad to oversee the arrangements including medical treatment for the injured.
