Illegal miner caught under sand, dies

The tragedy struck the quartet, who were illegally mining sand at Samiyar Madam. Thangavelu (25), son of Subramani, along with Sarkildas (40), Nagaraj (32) and Elumalai (35), all the four from of Valarpuram Colony, were involved in the illegal act. While they busy at work, sand suddenly caved in and buried all four of them.

On seeing this, some passers-by rushed to the spot and tried to the rescue the four miners. But, they managed to pull out three of them. As time passed, Thangavelu, who got stuck under the sand, died at the same spot.

On receipt of information, Arakkonam taluk police rushed to the spot and conducted enquiries. They sent the body of Thangavelu to the Arakkonam general hospital for post-mortem while they rushed the three injured to the government hospital at Tiruttani in neighbouring Tiruvallur district. A casehas been registered and further inquiries are underway.