Vikram Rana, a resident of Sarela village under Takoli-Ghirthan panchayat in the neighbouring Fatehpur sub-division, remained untraced on Saturday, five days after he was trapped in a massive landslide at a tunnel construction site in Kerala’s Wayanad district on July 7.

His brothers, Promod Rana and Kulwant Rana, who reached the site on Wednesday, a day after the incident, continue to remain there, anxiously awaiting news of his whereabouts.

Speaking over the phone, Promod said that after recovering three bodies, including that of site engineer Rahul Sharma from Himachal Pradesh’s Mandi district, rescue teams retrieved another body on Friday morning. The deceased was an employee of the construction company and hailed from West Bengal. His body was found in a flooded nullah adjoining the landslide site.

Promod said four teams, including the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), the Fire and Rescue Services, Kerala Police and volunteers from the NGO Jeevan Rakshak, continued rescue and search operations despite inclement weather. He said extensive searches were carried out in the nullah near the landslide site but there was no trace of his brother.

He added that after the unsuccessful search in the nullah, teams began clearing landslide debris from the site on Friday evening using heavy machinery, including excavators, JCBs and bulldozers.

Expressing gratitude to the local administration and the Kerala government for the ongoing rescue efforts, Promod said Kerala Agriculture Minister T Siddique had been stationed at the site for the past five days to supervise the search operation.