BENGALURU: In less than 15 minutes, Lakshman’s lost his 27-year-old son Narayan, his daughter-in-law Nirmala and his 4-year-old granddaughter Anushka in the twin building collapse on Hutchins Road in Cooke Town, early morning on Wednesday.
“It is the end and it happened so soon...I was so helpless! My son, his wife and our granddaughter stayed in the basement of Sri Sai Ambal apartments. My son was the security guard for the building, which is next to the four-storey under-construction building, which collapsed,” said Lakshman.
Lakshman pointed out that he was also employed as a security guard in a building on the right side of the building which collapsed. “At around 1.30 AM, I felt a tremor in my building. I thought it was a mild earthquake, so I rushed out with the other inmates from our building. The moment we came out we saw the collapsed building. The impact of the collapse was so strong that the ground floor of Sri Sai Ambal apartments caved in resulting in the death of my son’s family, who sleeping in the basement,” said Lakshman.
Lakshman said that he could not even move the debris since many of the cement blocks, which came crashing down, blocked the pathway to the basement. “I saw my son’s hand sticking out of the debris, almost as though he was calling out to me, but I couldn’t help,” said Lakshman.
Lakshman said that the rescue teams arrived quickly and started the rescue operation, but it was too late. He said the money his son had saved also got buried in the debris.
He said that he and his wife were earlier working in HBR Layout. They moved to Hutchins Road and found a job next to Narayan’s building so that he could stay close to him. However, now he can never see his son. “It is so tragic that I could not hear my son’s screams or cries for help. I dont where my wife and I will go now,” he stated.