Twenty-one Indian army applicants were killed on Thursday when an underground septic tank collapsed at a recruitment centre, police said.
The victims were queueing up for health checks at the centre at Lucknow, capital of the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, when the ground gave way under them, police said. "This happened early in the morning when thousands of people had turned up for recruitment when an underground septic drain collapsed," Lucknow district police chief B.B. Bakshi told Reuters.
"Twenty-one of these boys have been killed and there are no more trapped," he said.
It was not clear what caused the deaths. No further details were immediately available.
(China Daily March 15, 2002)