Bodies of six construction workers from Assam were recovered on Friday from the deep gorge in Arunachal Pradesh’s Anjaw district, into which a truck carrying 22 people plunged on Monday night.

The daylong operation involved over 150 personnel from the army, NDRF and police and local volunteers.

Officials said the bodies were lifted out of the gorge between 1.40pm and 4.30pm on the second day of the operation on Friday.

The six were among the 19 construction workers from Assam’s Tinsukia district who died in the incident on Monday night. A 22-year-old worker named Budheswar Deep survived the fatal fall and managed to walk his way up through the treacherous terrain to report the mishap at a Border Roads Organisation camp on Wednesday night, triggering a search operation on Thursday.

The crash took place at Laliang village, located between Hayuliang and Chaglagam in Anjaw district of the frontier state.

There were 22 workers in the truck, excluding the driver and the handyman, an official said on Friday. The driver appeared to have lost control while taking a sharp turn.

“Around 150 people spent around five to six hours since 5am on Friday to create a pathway to carry the bodies up. Moreover, army and NDRF personnel created two base camps 140m apart on their way up so that they could lift the bodies with ropes. It was a risky and tiring operation, but we will resume it by 5am on Saturday,” an official said.

The bodies of 17 out of the 19 deceased workers have been located. Four persons are yet to be traced.

The operation will continue for at least two days, given the rough and risky terrain, officials said.

“We will be cutting through the damaged truck on Saturday to look for the trapped bodies. Two workers, along with the driver and handyman of the truck, are still missing,” said an official.

Assam cabinet minister Bimal Borah and MLA Sanjay Kishan travelled to the mishap site in Anjaw district to take stock of the ongoing operation, while two ministers, Atul Bora and Keshab Mahanta, visited the affected families at Gelapukhuri in Tinsukia district to offer their condolences and update them about the government’s efforts to retrieve the bodies.

Both Borah and Bora said had it not been for the injured survivor, it would have taken days to know about the mishap because of the remoteness of the mishap site.

Borah also said the contractor who had engaged the workers had been arrested. “Nothing can be seen from the road. Everyone is trying hard to retrieve the bodies,” he said.