IAF chopper crew rescue man stuck in dam water for 16 hrs

An IAF chopper crew on Monday morning rescued a man stuck for around 16 hours in the fast flowing water of Khutaghat dam in Chhattisgarh's Bilaspur district.

A senior police officer said on Monday that Jitendra Kashyap of Gidhauri village jumped into the waste water weir of Khutaghat dam near Ratanpur after a quarrel with his wife around 4 p.m. on Sunday.

"Since the water flow was very heavy, he couldn't come out," Bilaspur Inspector General of Police Dipanshu Kabra told IANS.

Bilaspur Superintendent of Police Prashant Agrawal said that Jitendra somehow held on to a small rock and a tree but remained stuck there.

Once the Indian Air Force received a SOS from the district administration, an IAF rescue team flew on a M-17 chopper from state capital Raipur at 5.49 a.m. and airlifted the man to safety at 6.37 a.m.

Teams of the state disaster management, South Eastern Coalfields Ltd (SECL), and National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) were also involved in the operation, Agrawal added.

After the rescue operation that lasted around 20 minutes, Jitendra was flown to Raipur and admitted in a private hospital. His condition is 'stable'. - IANS