Cops say 2 trapped in ‘illegal’ building collapse in T’gana

At least two persons were feared dead when the top four floors of a six-storey under-construction building collapsed in the temple town of Bhadrachalam in Telangana’s Bhadradri Kothagudem district on Wednesday afternoon, the police said. The floors were illegally constructed, police added.

The incident happened when six construction workers were taking their lunch on the second floor of the building, located adjacent to the local gram panchayat office. The slabs of the building collapsed with a loud thud and fell one over the other.

“Four of the six workers came out minutes before the slabs collapsed, while two others are caught under the debris,” a police official of Bhadrachalam police station supervising the rescue operations told local reporters.

Preliminary inquiries revealed that the building belonged to a local priest, Upendra, who is planning to set up a religious institution there. “He also constructed a temple adjacent to the building, which has no permissions,” the police official said.

Soon after coming to know about the incident, the police reached the spot along with rescue teams of the panchayat to take up rescue operations. “The debris is being cleared using bulldozers and other heavy machinery,” the official said, adding that investigation was going on.

According to K Satyanarayana, correspondent of a local daily, four storeys were being constructed on the top of the already existing two-storey building. “Upendra, along with his family, was staying on the ground floor of the building. Before the incident took place, he, too, came out of the building. After the building collapsed, he went to the police station and surrendered,” Satyanarayana said.