Published Aug 25, 2023 | 8:17 PM ⚊ Updated Aug 25, 2023 | 8:18 PM
An image from the accident site. (Screengrab)
Nine women were killed when a jeep they were travelling in fell into a gorge in Mananthavadi in the Wayanad district of Kerala on Friday, 25 August.
According to the police, 14 people were in the jeep when the accident took place at around 3.30 pm on the Valad-Mananthavady road.
“The jeep was returning to Makkimala with women working in a private tea estate,” a local resident told reporters.
The victims were rushed to a hospital at Mananthavady but the police told South First that nine of them lost their lives.
The nine deceased have been identified as Rani, Santhi, Chinnamma, Leela, Rabiya, Sheeja, Karthyayani, Shoibha and Chitra, all belonging to Makkimala.
Four people, including the driver, were critically injured and were undergoing treatment at the Government Medical College Hospital in Mananthavady.
The jeep was completely destroyed in the accident. According to reports, the vehicle split into two due to the impact of the fall.
An official of the Thalapuzha Police Station told South First that the cause of the accident was yet to be ascertained.
However, reports claimed that the vehicle lost control at a hairpin bend and fell into a 25-metre-deep-gorge. Locals along with people on the way back from the plantation joined in the rescue operation.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan directed Forest Minister AK Saseendran, who was in Kozhikode, to rush to the accident site.
Vijayan gave directions to coordinate all measures including the treatment of the injured and taking care of other necessary things, a CMO statement said.
Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi also expressed grief over the incident.
“Deeply saddened by the tragic jeep accident that took the lives of many tea plantation workers in Mananthavady, Wayanad. Have spoken to the district authorities, urging a swift response. My thoughts are with the grieving families. Wish a speedy recovery to those injured,” Gandhi wrote on Facebook.
(With PTI inputs)
