10 ft under: How 2 buildings collapsed

Tragedy struck at Pulakeshinagar early Wednesday when a portion of two apartments collapsed after the soil caved in, killing five people, including a three-year-old child.

The ground and first floor of the two apartment buildings, one of them under construction, collapsed after the soil caved in and the buildings tilted to the backside. The under-construction building had six floors while the other one - Sai Adi Ambal had four floors.

The police have identified the deceased as Narayan (26), Nirmala (20), Anushka (3), Shambhu Kumar and Khagan Sarkar. Narayan was working as a security guard at Sai Adi Ambal, while his wife Nirmala was working as a maid and Anushka was their daughter.

The couple, hailing from Nepal, was residing in a room on the parking lot of Sai Adi Ambal, and they died on the spot.

Fire and Emergency personnel rushed to the spot and rescued four people from the debris. The other two deceased, both hailing from Bihar, died in the under-construction building while they were asleep.

According to police, Sai Adi Ambal apartment complex collapsed after the soil beneath the building caved in nearly 10 feet, thereby affecting the adjoining under-construction building, which also caved in. Eight families residing at Sai Adi Ambal had a providential escape just before the collapse.

In the under-construction building there were 13 workers and they were all fast asleep when the incident happened. While seven of them managed to escape, six got caught under the debris. Fire service personnel managed to rescue four of them. People residing in the neighborhood said that they heard a cracking sound at around 2 am and immediately rushed out of their houses to check. They then found that two neighbouring buildings had caved in. The Pulakeshinagar police have taken up a case against the owners of the two buildings, Mohammed Shoiab and Mohammed Imtiyaz, and booked them under IPC Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder).