At least nine labourers were killed and 12 others injured when a truck carrying a heavy load of mangoes overturned on the embankment of a tank in Andhra Pradesh’s Annamayya district late on Sunday night, police said on Monday.
The incident occurred at Reddicheruvu of Pullampet block at around 11 pm. The deceased were identified as: Chittemma (25), Subba Ratnamma (45), Gajjala Durgaiah (32), Gajjala Srinu (33), Gajjala Lakshmidevi (36), Radha (39), Gajjala Ramana (42), Venkata Subbamma (37) and Munichandra (38).
While eight of them died on the spot, Munichandra succumbed to injuries while undergoing treatment at the government hospital, Rajampet.
A police official of Pullampet police station said as many as 21 labourers from Shettigunta ST Colony in Railway Kodur block (of Annamayya district), Vaddivedu and Kalvakuntla areas of Venkatagiri block in Tirupati district came to Isukapalli village for harvesting of mangoes.
After completing their work, the labourers boarded a mango-loaded lorry bound for the Railway Kodur market. “As the truck reached Reddicheruvu embankment, it overturned, as a result of which the labourers were crushed under the mango load,” the police official said.
