Kozhikode/ Shirur: Army personnel have reached the landside-hit spot at Shirur of Ankola in Karnataka to resume the search for Kozhikode native Arjun on Friday morning. The rescue operations to trace the Kozhikode man have entered 11th day as bad weather and strong currents in the river continued to challenge the mission. The excavators have started making a ramp connecting the land and river to intensify the search.
Manorama News reported that the district authority confirmed that the truck was spotted 50 metres away from the river bank. Earlier, it was reported that the truck was located 20 metres away from the land.
Kerala minister P A Mohammed Riyas and A K Saseendran will reach the site by noon on Friday. As heavy rain accompanied by strong winds is battering Shirur, the India Meteorological Department sounded an orange alert in this place. Manorama News reported that the search for the missing man will be delayed due to the bad weather. The rescue team including the army, navy and NDRF are trying to trace the cabin of the truck. In the search carried out Thursday, thermal scanners of the advanced drone ruled out the presence of a human in the truck that was trapped in the river bed. A team of army led by Major General Rajendran will continue the search using drones on Friday too.
Captain Rajith, a spokesperson of Navy told Manorama News that expert divers would not be able to search in the deep waters due to the strong currents and zero visibility.
“Navy clearance divers are already in the spot. They are unable to dive in the river due to the strong current. If they dive into the deep water, zero visibility will also affect their mission. They are trained to dive into 150-metre-deep water. But, they can't retrieve anything from the river due to the poor visibility. They need to swim against the current to carry out the mission. In the current situation, it is not possible as the water is very turbulent now. Sand, soil and rock are also likely to flow in the turbulent waters. So diving will be very risky,” he said.
After the drone search, Retired major general Indrabalan Nambiar who led the operation told the media that four metal objects were missing from the landside spot. Safety railing of the road, tower, Arjun's truck and cabin of a tanker should be recovered. During the search, the drone detected three points of objects. On the third spot, we assume that the position of the truck, he added.
He pointed out that Arjun's truck would not sink in the water immediately after plunging into the river as it was loaded with heavy logs. It may be submerged after the logs fell from it.
