Hyderabad: In greed to get gold from an abandoned gold mine, two friends from Andhra Pradesh put their lives in danger, as one of the friends was trapped in the mine for hours before the rescue team pulled him out.
A 55-year-old man from Nellore district was rescued after he was trapped in an abandoned gold mine in Ramagiri village in Sri Sathya Sai district, Andhra Pradesh. Inspired by YouTube videos on gold deposits in Ramagiri Gold Mines and a recent announcement by the Andhra Pradesh government about reopening the 25-year-abandoned gold mines, the two friends went to the village to try their luck.
According to the police, Prabhakar Reddy of Buchireddypalem in Sri Potti Sriramulu Nellore district and his friend Kishtaiah of Pallipalem watched videos claiming gold could be found in the Ramagiri mines. They believed the video content and came to the village in search of gold, the police said.
Speaking to The Pioneer, Ramagiri Sub-Inspector (SI) said the two reached an old tunnel, where gold had once been extracted, in the village around 4:00 pm on October 12 . “Prabhakar Reddy used a rope to climb down into the mine. Inside, it was pitch-dark with little ventilation. Prabhakar began to suffocate and when he tried to climb back out, he found he could not and became trapped,” the SI said.
Kishtaiah, who stayed above and was unable to pull Prabhakar out of the mine, tied the rope to a rock and went to get help from locals. Police personnel, firefighters and locals took part in the operation, and Prabhakar Reddy was brought out safely at around 2 am October 13.
V. Suresh, a firefighter at Dharmavaram fire station, said that we received the information about the incident around 10:00 pm on Monday and five of our rescue team personnel went to the incident site.
“With the help of his friend Kishtaiah, Prabhakar went inside the gold mine with a rope tied around his waist. At around 120 feet, due to Prabhakar’s age and his hands swelling, he decided not to go down further. He then tried to climb up, but he failed and was trapped inside the mine. Kishtaiah, with the locals, informed the police about the incident,” Suresh said.
Police said no case was registered because there was no malicious intent involved and no gold was found. “Both men were counselled against taking up dangerous activities inspired by social media videos without assessing the risks and were allowed to leave after the rescue,” the police said.