Mangaluru: A team of police officials busted an illegal sand mining racket at Adyar village in the wee hours of Saturday; they seized three lorries but the accused managed to escape.

The accused were mining sand on the banks of the Netravathi behind Sahyadri College of Engineering at about 1.45 am.

The police, apart from the lorries, also seized an earth excavator machine that was being used extract sand from the river bed.

It is said that the value of the machine and the lorries was estimated at Rs 80 lakh while the sand recovered was worth Rs 65,000.

A case was registered.