Rourkela: The rescue team at Rourkela Steel Plant on Friday recovered another body from the plant's effluent discharge tunnel. This was the second body retrieved from tunnel No. 9 since the rescue operation was launched on June 9.

Five residents of Shitalpara in the Udit Nagar area of the town had gone missing inside the 130-meter tunnel that discharges effluents, mostly chemicals such as coal tar, on June 3.

The operation to trace them began on June 9 after the wife of one of them, Krishna Baraik lodged a complaint with Uditnagar police.

The retrieved bodies, however, are yet to be identified.

Sources said the five missing persons had entered the tunnel to steal iron and other valuable metals from inside the steel plant.

"People have started using this route to steal materials from the plant area after all other routes were closed," said an official.

Confirming the recovery of the body, deputy fire officer Binod Kumar Singh said: "I spoke to one of the senior officials of the steel plant and he said that one body had been recovered."