Coimbatore: Three people, including two women, were killed and six others rescued in a building collapse here due to heavy rains, police said Monday. The single-storey building on Chetti Street suddenly collapsed at around 10.30pm Sunday, they informed. In the impact, an adjoining tiled-roof house also collapsed.
The death toll rose to three Monday evening with the body of a woman being retrieved from the debris. The body was brought out after a search for nearly 20 hours, police said.
Earlier, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami condoled the deaths and announced a relief of Rs 1,00,000 each to the kin of the deceased. He prayed for the speedy recovery of the injured.
“I have directed providing Rs 1,00,000 lakh each to the family of the victims from the Chief Minister’s Public Relief Fund,” Palaniswami said in a statement.
Police and Fire service personnel toiled hard to clear the debris and managed to rescue six people. Those rescued, with minor injuries, were admitted to the Coimbatore Medical College and Hospital, police said.
District Collector K Rajamani and police Commissioner Sumit Saran monitored the operations.
Meanwhile, CPI-M MP, PR Natarajan, who visited the area, demanded that the state government make a detailed inquiry into the building collapse. He attributed the reason to the extensive use of earthmovers as part of cleaning the nearby ‘Selva Chintamani’ pond which is being beautified under the Smart City project.
Natarajan said only after confirming the strength of the embankment area, works for beautifying the pond should be undertaken.