15 trekkers rescued from forest fire in Tamil Nadu

Theni: About 25 trekkers, some of them women, are feared trapped in raging fire deep in the reserve forest atop the Kurangani hills near here  even as massive rescue operations by multiple agencies, including the Indian Air Force, managed to rescue around 15 and rushed them to the government hospital with burn injuries.

With little or no communication facilities in the remote woods, due to lack of mobile phone towers, information was hard to get. However, tribals and some local villagers rushing in to volunteer help have been providing invaluable support to the rescue teams that took time to reach the spot braving the fire. First information said the trekkers were mostly from Chennai, Tirupur and Erode. They had gone in batches to spend the weekend in the forest and planned to return Sunday evening.

Reports, obtained from video shots from mobiles used by some local rescuers, showed the victims, many of them girls, in great pain and crying for water. Some of them had their dresses in tatters and burnt.