LUCKNOW: At least seven persons were killed and over 30 were trapped under the debris of an under-construction roof of cold storage which collapsed in the Daurala area of Meerut district on Friday.
As per the local police sources, senior administrative and police officials including Meerut Divisional commissioner Selva Kumari J, IG Praveen Kumar, SSP Rohit Singh along with a team of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) rushed to the spot to carry out the rescue operations and take out the labourers buried under the debris.
The police sources added that till evening, around 26 people were rescued from the rubble and efforts were on to trace others. The injured were rushed to Meerut district hospital and LLRM Medical College for immediate medical intervention. However, four persons were said to be critical.
The local sources claimed that while the nearby hospitals were kept on standby, dozens of ambulances were put to service to ferry the injured to hospitals.
The cold storage, the roof of which collapsed, belonged to a former Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLA Chandra Veer Singh.
As per the local sources, on Friday afternoon when around 40 labourers were working and setting the lintel in the cold storage when the cylinder of the refrigerator inside the building blasted leaking ammonia gas. Owing to the blast, the shuttering of the lintel came down leading the entire roof to collapse with labourers working in the cold storage getting buried under the rubble.
Daurala Circle Officer Ashish Sharma claimed that the blast was so powerful that the window panes of neighbouring shops and buildings cracked. While the identity of the victims was yet to be ascertained, the rescue teams comprising the NDRF and SDRF had put the JCB machines and dog squad to service to extract the people buried under the debris.
UP CM Yogi Adityanath also took cognizance of the accident and directed Meerut DM and the police commissioner to ensure the best treatment of the injured immediately besides saving those still trapped under the rubble.
Moreover, while the cold storage owner Chandra Veer Singh could not reach the spot as he was unwell, Union Minister Sanjeev Balyan accompanied by senior officials had arrived at the site of the mishap and was monitoring the rescue operations