Ludhiana factory roof collapse death toll rises to five

LUDHIANA: With the death of a labourer on Wednesday, the toll in the roof collapse incident of an auto-parts factory here has climbed to five.

The worker identified as Santosh Kumar succumbed to injuries in a hospital, an official said.

While five have now died in the incident, eight others had been injured when the roof of an auto-parts factory collapsed at Baba Mukand Singh Nagar in Ludhiana on Monday.

After the incident, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had ordered a magisterial probe into the circumstances leading to the roof collapse of the factory and asked Divisional Commissioner of Patiala division to submit his report within two weeks.

"The factory owner was lifting the lintel level without permission of the municipal corporation," Deputy Commissioner Varinder Sharma had earlier said.

Teams of the National Disaster Response Force, State Disaster Response Force and civic body undertook the rescue operations.

A case has been registered against the factory owner and the contractor, Ludhiana Police Commissioner Rakesh Aggarwal had earlier said.

The CM had announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh each for the families of the deceased and free treatment for the injured.