Thiruvananthapuram: A Navy team has arrived in Thiruvananthapuram to assist in the search for a sanitation worker who was swept away while cleaning the Amayizhanchan canal in Kerala's capital. 

The team, comprising seven members, will inspect the site where a temporary sanitation worker named Joy was swept away while cleaning the Thampanoor section of the canal.

Search efforts on Sunday were called off but are scheduled to resume on Monday morning. The Navy team will participate in the inspection of the area and determine the next steps in the operation.

The mayor of Thiruvananthapuram stated that the Navy team has called for an independent search into the incident. They have also requested that journalists vacate the area to facilitate the search operation.

Joy and two other workers were engaged in cleaning the Thampanoor part of the canal near the railway station when the water flow increased due to heavy rainfall, sweeping them into a 200-metre-long tunnel below the tracks of the platform at the central railway station.

The search resumed this morning with the entire state machinery, including fire force personnel, its scuba-diving team, police, civic workers, and NDRF personnel, engaged in the operation.

According to official sources, efforts are on to remove the piles of waste and marsh accumulated in the canal to facilitate a search inside a manhole leading to the tunnel.