BHOPAL: A 50-year-old woman was buried alive and two others sustained severe injuries when a dilapidated double-storied house collapsed in city’s Itwara area on Monday afternoon.
The house which is believed to be 75-year-old, collapsed at around 2.45 pm while renovation work was underway in its front portion.
The woman identified as Shahida Bi is the wife of the house of owner Mohd Salim, while Golu, one of the injured people, is his brother.
A total of 10-15 members of joint family resided in the house, but only three to four were present in the house when it collapsed.
“It was not the Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) staff or the state disaster emergency response force personnel, who rushed to the spot, on coming to know about the house collapse. Instead it was local residents who took out the injured men and the woman who was buried alive in the debris,” said municipal corporator (Ward no. 19) Sawar Mansur.
It was after an hour that BMC personnel and the SDERF team reached the spot and began clearing the debris with the help of four JCB machines, he added.
Bhopal mayor Alok Sharma who reached the spot to take stock of rescue operations told journalists that all such dilapidated houses in the city will be identified shortly followed by their demolition before onset of monsoon.