Five labourers, including a minor, were killed when a tipper truck unloaded sand on their temporary shed at a construction site on Saturday, the police said.
The accident occurred due to the slippage of a concrete segment that was used to seal seepage at the 14-km inlet of the Srisailam Left Bank Canal tunnel, which runs from Srisailam towards Devarakonda.
In a statement, the Chief Minister's Office said that "some people were injured in the incident", adding that Revanth Reddy had ordered the District Collector, Superintendent of Police, and personnel from the fire department and Hyderabad Disaster Response and Assets Protection Agency (HYDRAA) to take up relief measures immediately".
While there was no official information on how many workers were inside the tunnel at the time of the accident, a police official told news agency PTI that there were at least six to eight people trapped.
"The incident occurred when some workers had gone inside as part of the work when roof collapsed at 12-13 km inside the tunnel," the official was quoted as saying.
The state's Irrigation Minister Uttam Kumar Reddy, Irrigation Advisor Aditya Nath Das, IG Sathyanarayana and DG Fire Services GV Narayan Rao are overseeing relief operations at the spot.
Expressing concern over the accident, Union Coal Minister G Kishan Reddy enquired about the reasons for it and asked officials to bring out those feared trapped to safety.
He also told the officials to provide treatment to the injured if any, his office said in a brief statement
The incident occurred in the wee hours of the day at the site of a bridge project at Pasodi-Chandol in Jafrabad tehsil, an official said.
He said the labourers were sleeping in their makeshift shed at the site when a sand-laden tipper arrived, and the truck driver, unaware of their presence, unloaded the contents on the shed, burying them
Sources said the shed collapsed under the weight of the sand, and the truck driver fled the scene.
The official said a girl and a woman were rescued from the debris.
He said a case had been registered, and efforts were under way to trace the driver.
The deceased have been identified as Ganesh Dhanwai (60) and his son Bhushan Dhanwai (16), both residents of Golegaon in Sillod tehsil, and Sunil Sapkal (20), a resident of Padmavati in Jafrabad tehsil.
He said the identity of the other two victims was yet to be ascertained.
