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Labourers killed as 11-storey building collapses amid monsoon in India Labourers killed as 11-storey building collapses amid monsoon in India
(about 5 hours later)
At least nine people were killed and dozens trapped after an 11-storey block of flats crumbled in southern India, in the country's latest building disaster. Police in southern India detained five construction company officials on Sunday as rescuers using gas cutters and shovels searched for dozens of workers believed buried in the rubble of a building that collapsed during monsoon rains. It was one of two weekend building collapses which killed at least 22 people.
The tower, which was still being built, collapsed on Saturday evening after heavy rains and crushed labourers working at the site on the outskirts of Chennai in Tamil Nadu. Nearly 90 contract workers are believed to have been in the basement of the 11-storey structure collecting their wages when it collapsed on Saturday on the outskirts of Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu.
Senior police officer Karuna Sagar told a TV news station nine bodies had been pulled from the rubble and 31 people were being treated in hospital. Police said 31 people had been pulled out so far: four died on the spot and another seven succumbed to injuries in hospital.
Sagar added that witnesses described hearing a loud bang before the building collapsed after about 50 workers went inside to shelter from the rain. The exact number of those trapped was unknown, but rescuers could hearvoices in the debris, said TS Sridhar, the disaster management agency commissioner. Officials used gas cutters, iron rods and shovels after cranes lifted concrete blocks to get to the survivors.
TV footage showed rescuers scouring the debris on Sunday with shovels as they searched for survivors. "Removing debris is a major challenge. It may take two to three days to clear the rubble," said SP Selvam, who is heading the rescue operation.
A disaster management official said clearing the debris could take days. Police officer Fernandes said two directors, two engineers and one supervisor of the construction company, Prime Sristi, were detained for questioning as authorities began investigating the collapse.
"There is no clarity on the number of people trapped," SP Selvan, a senior officer from the National Disaster Response Force, told reporters according to the Press Trust of India. Balaguru, a builder at the site, said the structure may have collapsed due to the impact of lightning.
Earlier on Saturday a dilapidated apartment block collapsed in New Delhi, killing 10 people including five children. "Usually, once the construction gets over we install the equipment to prevent the building from a thunder strike. It was nearing completion," the Press Trust of India news agency quoted him as saying.
Building collapses are common in India where lax regulations and the demand for cheap housing spurs constructions with substandard materials and unauthorised extra floors. Earlier on Saturday 11 people died and one survivor was being treated in hospital after a four-storey, 50-year-old structure toppled in a poor neighbourhood of New Delhi, said the fire service officer Praveer Haldiar.
Police are said to have arrested two construction company directors after the Chennai building collapse. Most homes in that part of the capital were built without permission and using substandard materials, police officer Madhur Verma said.
"We will look into all aspects of planning permission and quality of construction, the structure aspect and the soil condition and see what's wrong," Sagar said. Building collapses are common in India, where high demand for housing and lax regulations have encouraged some builders to cut corners, use poor-quality materials or add unauthorized extra floors.
Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu chief minister, Jayalalithaa Jayaram, announced compensation of £2,000 to families of the dead and £500 for those injured. In April last year, in the worst incident in decades, 74 people were killed when an eight-storey building being constructed illegally in the Mumbai suburb of Thane in western Maharashtra caved in.