Two construction workers died and three others were injured when a portion of a hill collapsed and buried them in mud at their work site in Pelling, about 130km west of Gangtok, on Friday morning.

The incident occurred around 8.30am when workers of a ropeway project between Pelling helipad and Sanghak Choeling Monastery in Gyalshing district were building a guard wall. When a part of the hill collapsed on them, five were buried and three others had a lucky escape.

Police said among the five, two were declared brought dead at the district hospital in Gyalshing.

“The two dead are Rabi Roy, 30, and Sudhurum Oraon, 50. They and the three injured are from Jalpaiguri district in Bengal,” said a police source.

The bodies of Roy and Oraon were given to their kin after post-mortem.

Two of the injured were shifted to a Siliguri hospital and the third was released after treatment.

Arrest

In Alipurduar, police seized two pistols and two rounds of live cartridges from one Nanda Kumar Barman, a resident of Cooch Behar, on Friday.

Barman was on his way to Siliguri in a car when the police, acting on a tip-off, stopped him at Sonapur and found the firearms on him.