Five people died in a landslide in Pokhara on Sunday. They were constructing a retaining wall along the Manipal-Sikles-Manang road section in Mauja when the landslide swept away the wall, burying the workers at around 8:05 am.

The workers had resumed work in the construction site two days after the wall’s foundation was dug out, said Sobit KC, an engineer at the Royal/Shanidev JV the contractor company. “The workers were given days off on Friday and Saturday for the by-elections.”

On Sunday morning, seven workers had reached the site to carry out construction work. “Of them, five were buried under the landslide debris,” KC said. The two other workers, Khimlal Basnet and Suk Bahadur Basnet, saved themselves by running away just when the landslide occurred.

According to Ward Chairman Sim Gurung, all five workers who lost their lives in the incident were from Pedikhola in Baagchaur Municipality of Salyan district.

The deceased have been identified as Tovan Basnet, Khimlal Oli, Ganesh Oli, Jit Bahadur Basnet and Jogendra Budhathoki. Personnel from the Nepal Army, Nepal Police, APF and the locals began rescue work soon after the incident occurred. It took around two hours to recover the bodies, which are being kept in the Western Regional Hospital of Pokhara Academy Of Health Science for postmortem.

The road section was being upgraded with a budget of Rs82.5 million allocated by the Pokhara metropolis, Chairman Gurung said.

The story has been updated.