Everything was over in 5 to 10 seconds: Bengaluru building collapse eyewitness

BENGALURU: Three people died and few more are feared trapped or dead along with six others, who were injured and rescued, from a five-storied under-construction building that collapsed in Bellandur near Eco Space on Wednesday afternoon.

The incident happened around 12.30 pm when three to four groups of construction workers, totally around 15, working at the building were about to leave for lunch, the police said. The deceased have been identified as Ashok Mahanta, 27, a native of Assam, who worked as a security guard at the adjacent residential complex Meena’s Imperial Orchids nearby. The other deceased was identified as Sameer, aged about 20, a labourer who hailed from West Bengal. Another body of a construction worker was retrieved from the debris, but is yet to be identified by the police.

The building, which was meant to be a paying guest accommodation, initially tilted to the left and collapsed with floor after floor sliding down on to the adjacent road and a vacant plot nearby on the Café Coffee Day Road. “Everything was over in 5 to 10 seconds,” an eyewitness said.

Ashok was inside the security cabin when it happened. The building fell right over the cabin and he died on the spot. The body was retrieved hours later, after the rescue workers drilled through the thick concrete slabs and moved them with earthmovers.

The other deceased, Sameer, was identified later at the Sakra Hospital, while the police are yet to identify the third deceased. The rescue workers have even found a leg of a person, presumably of a male who was trapped, and officials fear he too may have died.

Some still trapped
Few others still believed to be trapped in the debris according to the headcount provided by labourers to the police and the rescue workers, at the time of this report going to press. The workers have identified them as Radhe and Dipankar. The injured were identified as Nagaraj, his eight-year-old son Bannappa, his brother Bheemaraya, Aditya Pramanik, Chandan, and Bishnu P. Mahiti.

A man being rescused by Fire and emergency forces personnel from the collapsed building in Bellandur on Wednesday. (Photo: R. Samuel)

Lucky escape for driver
A driver of a Tata Sumo cab had a providential escape. He had come to pick up few software employees, who were at a PG accommodation nearby. As the employees were not ready yet, he had parked his vehicle next to the building and gone to a nearby hotel to have food. But when he came back, his vehicle was not to be seen as it got crushed under the debris.

‘Ran out just in time...’
“Around 12.30 pm, we heard a deafening sound of walls cracking and breaking and we started running out of the building,” said Aditya, a granite tile layer, who was injured. He, Chandan and Bisnu Padhamayi slid down the floors and escaped, even as the building was tiling and crashing to the ground. “Three of our workers – Sameer, Radhe and Dipankar, who were laying tiles on the third and fourth floors have gone missing,” he said.

Personnel from the Fire and Emergency Services, National Disaster Response Force, State Disaster Response Force, Civil Defence and the police carried out the rescue operation. “As the building had six floors, a large amount of rubble had to be cleared before the rescue teams pulled out the survivors. We had heavy equipment, but we could not use them as the building could collapse further,” said P.R.S. Chetan, Officer Commanding, Karnataka Civil Defence. “Rescue operations will continue till Wednesday early morning. The rescue teams are searching for more victims feared trapped,” said Mr M.N. Reddi, DGP, Fire and Emergency Services.

‘Poor construction’
BBMP officials, including Chief Engineer Parameshwariah and Assistant Executive Engnineer Shashikumar of Mahadevpura zone were busy flipping through the survey maps to identify the owners of the 2,000 sqft plot. “There are eight partners and the main ones are Harish Kumar, Srinivas Reddy and Vinay. All of them will be booked for negligence. The BBMP granted permission to construct ground plus three floors, but the builder had raised two additional floors. The building collapsed because of low-quality construction materials,” a BBMP official said.

Rs 5 lakh to kin of deceased
Mayor G. Padmavathi has announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the next of kin of the three deceased, one of them is yet to be identified, in the Bellandur building collapse and to bear the treatment cost of all the injured.

After visiting the building collapse site and the hospital, the Mayor said the five-storied building fell like a ‘pack of cards’ and blamed it on the use of sub-standard material and shoddy workmanship.

Two engineers, Raghavendra (assistant engineer) and Kodanda Reddy (Assistant Executive Engineer), have been suspended for dereliction of duty. A police complaint has been lodged against the builder, she added.

The builder had violated the building bye-law and constructed two additional floors. He was authorised to build ground and three floors, but he added two additional floors. However, he had purchased Transferable Development Rights (TDR) for one floor, while the other floor was unauthorised, the Mayor added.

7-year-old’s heroism
Seven-year-old Bannappa got injured but exhibited rare presence of mind in saving the life of his brother. Both Bannappa and his brother Bheema were playing inside the under construction building. Upon hearing a deafening noise, Bannappa pulled out Bheema and saved his life too, the Mayor said.

Bannappa, with his head in bandage rescued his brother Bheema. (Photo: R. Samuel)

More casualties?
The rescue team said that they had heard the voice of a woman crying for help, which went silent after some time. They fear she may be dead. The rescue team will take up late night operations to pull out the injured and deceased, if any.