Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (MS)

Bengaluru, Jul 11: Two adjacent apartment buildings, which had built additional floors without permission, at Cox Town in the city collapsed all of a sudden on the night of Tuesday killing five people including a child. More than eight families ran to safety during the collapse of the buildings.

Narayan (28), native of Nepal, his wife Nirmala (26), their daughter Anushka, and relatives Shambhu (38) and Kegan (38) are the unfortunate victims who died in the incident.

Labourers of West Bengal origin Ramabalak, Badam Ram, Ameer Ram and Ranju Baby were rescued from the rubble of the building by state fire service personnel and NDRF after many hours of operation.

The Frazer Town police registered two separate FIRs against owner of the under-construction building Mohammed Shoib A Hameed, contractor Sayyed, architect of the building B N Sridhara and owner of the adjacent building, that collapsed along with the under construction building, C A Rudrani, architect K Ravikumar.

The building that was under construction, in which additional floors were being added without permission, collapsed as it could not bear the weight. When collapsing this apartment building fell on the adjacent Sai Adi Amalal apartment, bringing it down also. As per the preliminary investigation, it has come to light that the additional floors built without the permission by owners of both the buildings is the reason for this tragedy.

DCM Dr G Parameshwar, minister K J George, mayor of BBMP Padmavati visited the spot and instructed the officials to take stringent action against the people responsible for the collapse.

The state fire service personnel rushed to the spot around 2.30 am as soon as they got the information. The personnel were put to a tough task of drilling holes into the walls to rescue the people who were stuck under the rubble of the buildings. But Shambhu died as a huge pillar fell on him. Kegan Sorkar died as he got squeezed between two huge walls. Their bodies were recovered after several hours of operation. The rescue operation is Sai Adil apartment was carried out by National Disaster Rescue Force (NDRF) and Civil Defese teams for several hours.