Lucknow building collapse: Toll rises to 8, CM Adityanath to visit injured at hospital

Lucknow, Sep 8 (PTI) The death toll in the building collapse here has climbed to eight with rescuers pulling out three more bodies from the debris, officials said on Sunday.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will visit Lok Bandhu Hospital here to meet those injured in the incident, after returning from Ambedkar Nagar, Director, Information, Shishir said.

Joint Commissioner of Police Amit Verma said there is minimum possibility of someone still being trapped inside.

A three-storey building housing godowns and a motor workshop collapsed in the Transport Nagar area here on Saturday, leaving 28 people injured. Five bodies were recovered from the spot.

As the rescue operation continued overnight, teams of National Disaster Response team (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) recovered the bodies of three people, who were identified as Raj Kishore (27), Rudra Yadav (24) and Jagrup Singh (35), Relief Commissioner G S Naveen said.

The eighth body was recovered around 3 am on Sunday, officials said.

Joint CP Verma said, “We are now focusing on ensuring that no one else is trapped under the rubble,” he said.

“NDRF and SDRF teams are removing the debris that will take time. The possibility of someone still inside the debris is less. Had there been someone, their family members would have contacted us by now,” he said.

Police said the building was constructed around four years ago and some construction work was underway at the time of the incident. Most of the victims were working on the ground floor when the incident occurred at 4:45 pm on Saturday.

The injured have been admitted to various hospitals, including Lok Bandhu Hospital, in the district.

According to the officials, the building had a motor workshop and warehouse on the ground floor, a medical godown on the first floor and a cutlery warehouse on the second floor.

Akash Singh, who worked in the medical godown and was among the injured, said a pillar of the building had developed a crack.

“We had come down to the ground floor because it was raining. We noticed that a pillar of the building had developed a crack. Suddenly, the entire building collapsed on us,” he said.