Two persons died and another was injured and admitted to the Mawanella hospital after a heavy mound of earth collapsed on a group of labourers in Mawanella town yesterday.
They were building a bund in a private property adjoining the Cargills Food City in Mawanella town on the Kandy road. The dead were identified as Tilak Premasiri Ranasinghe (45) of Rukulagama Devanagala and Menik Kadawaragedara Jayatilleke (44) of Waharakgoda Mawanella.
The injured was identified as Nisantha Udaya Kumara Jayawickrema (59) of Dooldeniya, Aranayake.
The tragedy occurred when the group of workers were removing supporting planks from a concrete foundation on the bund. Army personnel and Police who arrived on the scene used a backhoe machine to retrieve the bodies and save the injured buried under the heavy mound of earth.
Mawanella Divisional Secretary Priyanganee Pethangoda and Mawanella Police acting OIC Inspector Arjuna Kodikara visited the scene to supervise the rescue operation.
The two bodies are lying at the Mawanella Hospital awaiting an autopsy.
Officers of the Disaster Management Department and the Mawanella Police are conducting investigations.