Five labourers, trying to dig out empty brass shells of cartridges at the old army firing range, were buried alive as a mound of mud caved in on them, police said.
Officials said while the labourers were working in the range in the cantonment area here, a part of the mound collapsed, burying seven people. While two of them were pulled out, five could not make it.
The contractor who was overseeing the whole work fled the accident site.
The dead have been identified as Suresh Rawat (35), Chirayyia (20), Rajendra (35), Niranjan (50), and Sri Ram (35). The injured have been identified as Rajjan Lal (32) and Inderpal (23).
Inspector Alambagh, Rishi Dev Yadav told IANS that the rescue operations had been completed and added that efforts were on to apprehend the contractor who was on the run.