Seven labourers from Bihar died after a gigantic processing machine collapsed, trapping them under a heap of about 100 tonnes of corn at a godown of a private food processing unit in Aliyabad industrial area here, police said on Tuesday.

"Three people were injured but they were not trapped. Of the trapped people, one was rescued while seven of them died. All of them are labourers," Superintendent of Police of Vijayapura Sonawane Rishikesh Bhagawan told PTI.

The incident occurred on Monday evening.

During a search and rescue operation, the bodies of the seven labourers were pulled out while one person was rescued, the police officer said.

Another senior police official said: "The machine that processes corn has funnels laden with corns attached to it which are very, very heavy. The labourers working under it got trapped after it collapsed partially. These labourers got trapped under 100 tonnes of corn." The search and rescue operations started at around 6 pm on Monday and went on till 11 am Tuesday.

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