Departmental Inquiry Committee to establish Vizag crane collapse cause: Rajnath Singh

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said a departmental enquiry committee has been instituted to establish the cause leading to the accident in which 11 people were killed when a giant crane collapsed at Hindustan Shipyard Limited (HSL) in Andhra Pradesh's Visakhapatnam city on Saturday morning.

Taking to Twitter, Singh wrote, "Extremely anguished by the loss of lives due to an accident at HSL facility in Vishakhapatnam(AP). My thoughts are with the bereaved families. May the injured recover quickly. Departmental Enquiry Committee has been instituted to establish the causes leading to the accident."

The incident occurred while a crane built by contractor Anupam Engineers and Greenfield was being tested for load capability. The crane tilted suddenly and collapsed falling on the north side of the Slipway-4 on the crane track.

Out of 11 people killed, four were HSL employees and seven were contract workers of three contracting agencies

Police registered an FIR and are investigating the case. Meanwhile, District Collector Vinay Chand also set up a committee to launch an inquiry into the incident.

( With inputs from ANI )