Five policemen trapped on Tenkasi mountain rescued
The cops who had gone to nab a history sheeter apparently could not descend from the hill in Kadayam as the damp terrain became slippery due to rain.
Representative image
TENKASI: Five policemen trapped on a mountain which was part of the Western Ghats in this district were safely rescued after an overnight operation in the slippery terrain, police said on Friday.
The cops who had gone to nab a history sheeter apparently could not descend from the hill in Kadayam as the damp terrain became slippery due to rain.
"Following information that five policemen were trapped on the mountain, the fire and rescue services personnel launched a search operation and rescued them in the wee hours of today," a police official said.
Police commandos too had joined the fire and rescue services department personnel in the rescue operation that commenced at 11 pm on December 4. All the rescued cops were safe, the official said.
"We got a call around 10.30 pm on December 4 and commenced our rescue operation at 11 pm. It was a dense forest, and the spot was close to a dam," district assistant fire officer Pradeep Kumar said.
Taking up a rescue operation immediately after it rained was rather difficult and despite the risk posed by the arduous terrain, the personnel accompanied by police commandos spread in four directions and finally located the policemen fully drenched, he said.
"Luckily, they were not injured. They had remained at the spot unable to know how to proceed," he said and added that all of them were brought down the hill with the help of ropes. It was around 6 am when the last man was safely brought down, he said, adding they had to tread very cautiously inch by inch to avoid falling down the nearly 500 feet high mountain.
Though the personnel used ropes to climb the hill, portions of which were covered with wet grass and moss, a slight error could have led to a fatal fall, Kumar told reporters.
A police official said the five were among a group of 50 policemen who went to nab a history sheeter Balamurugan, who had several criminal cases against him in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. The others managed to return to the station and informed the higher officials about the plight of the five cops.
