An 18-year-old labourer was killed after earth caved in on him at a construction site on Outer Ring Road at Marathahalli on Sunday.
The deceased, Gopi, was a native of Guntur in Andhra Pradesh. Four other labourers, also from Andhra Pradesh, escaped with minor injuries.
The labourers were excavating earth for the construction of an apartment block when the mishap occurred.
Police said that the owner of the apartment block under construction at 1st Cross, Kadubeesanahalli on Marathalli Outer Ring Road, Nagaraj Reddy, also a native of Andhra Pradesh, fled the spot after the incident.
The contractor and the site supervisor too are absconding.
Police said the collapse happened as construction material like iron rods, stone crystals and sand had been dumped adjacent to the excavated site.
As heavy vehicles plied in the area, the soil loosened and the earth caved in.
A portion of the earth collapsed around 11 am on Sunday when labourers at the site were digging deeper. Four truckloads of soil was deposited on the labourers.
Earlier, the labourers had excavated five metres of earth. Earth-movers were deployed to dig deeper.
After the iron scaffolding for the pillars was erected, the workers were asked to excavate even more earth around the framework. The labourers wages were fixed at Rs5 per cubic feet.
