Canacona: A 25-year-old worker from West Bengal was crushed to death after the slab of an under-construction church in Goa came crashing down. Four others were injured.

Work of casting the second floor slab of the church at Canacona was in progress. The mishap occurred at about 5:20 pm. Police sources said that Gautam Mandal died on the spot as he was directly under the slab.

The contractor, Silva, was at the site at the time of the incidence and some debris fell on him, but he escaped with minor injuries, sources said.

Suraj Pradhan, 25, and Nibhuti Bhupendra Naik, 25, both from Odisha, Mahendra Kumar Mandal, 29, from West Bengal, and slab supervisor Damodar Kaskar, 55, from Margao were injured. There were first taken to the Canacona health centre and then referred to Hospico, Margao, the police said.

The old church at Sadolxem had been demolished and a new one was being constructed, work on which began about two years ago.

Sources said that a total of 25 laborers had been brought for the slab casting work. In addition, Silva had 10 of his laborers working at the construction site for two years.

At the sound of the crashing slab, some parishioners, who were attending the novena mass in a makeshift pandal nearby, rushed to help the injured.

The fire brigade personnel from Canacona arrived at the spot, while sub inspector Prashal Desai conducted the inquest panchnama. Mandal’s body has been sent for postmortem to Hospicio.