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1 killed, 4 hurt in Bangalore building collapse

July 26, 2007 10:18 IST

A building collapse in Bangalore has left an 18-month-old child dead and four persons injured.

A portion of a two-storied building near Koramangala in Bangalore crashed late on Wednesday night.

The building was housed at the Economically Weaker Section quarters.

The child who died of suffocation has been identified as Lakshmi. The parents of the child, Mahendran and Sunitha escaped with minor injuries.

The others injured in the collapse are Perumal and Mariappan.

The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (Corporation) had constructed 36 flats each in 42 blocks for the weaker section in 1987.

Due to poor quality of construction serious cracks had developed. Five years back one of the buildings came crashing down and then the corporation decided to reconstruct the buildings.

The corporation claims that despite repeated requests to residents to move out of the building, they continued to stay there. The corporation had even made alternate arrangements for the residents of these buildings.

The building that crashed on Wednesday had 12 flats. As the flats were in bad shape, the residents had been evacuated on Wednesday evening.

However, tragedy struck when some of the residents had returned to the building to collect their belongings.

Bangalore City Corporation Commissioner, S Subramanya said, "Had the residents of this building not shifted out, the casualty would have been worse. He said that they had to even shut down power and water supply so that the residents moved out of the building.

Vicky Nanjappa in Bangalore