One survivor was rescued and four more bodies retrieved on Tuesday from the rubble of City Light hotel at RP road in Secunderabad, which caved-in Monday morning. Among the four bodies is that of Ali Raza, a distant cousin of Syed Hassan Boluki, owner of the building. This took the toll to 17.
One person was rescued with injuries past midnight on Monday and the number of the injured is now put at 25. The rescued man was identified as Kamalakar (40), a tea maker at the hotel.
Police opened one side of the road to traffic on Tuesday. The other side, where the rescue work is going on, was however cordoned off completely. The first body, which was removed from the debris at around 11.45 am, was that of R Venkatesan (43), another tea maker at City Light. Soon, the body of K Kiran Kumar was retrieved.
Kumar made biryani at the hotel, and he and Venkatesan lived in the hotel. Both the bodies were sent to Gandhi hospital for post-mortem, after they were identified with the help of relatives.
Crowds from surrounding areas kept pouring in to watch rescue operations. At about 1.30 pm, another body was removed, but the police could not identify it as there was no one to recognise and claim the body.
At about 3.45 pm, Ali Raza’s body was found. His family members who bad been waiting there since Monday morning were, however, not present at that time. In the morning, Raza’s younger sister Khatija Fatima, and her daughter Zeba, were seen waiting anxiously, waiting for news about Raza. Another relative, Mir Yusuf Ali, said Raza was the supervisor of the hotel. After post-mortem, the body was handed over to relatives.
The search was not over till 5.15 pm, as the family members of K Ashok, a supplier at the hotel, were still waiting. He was at the hotel on Sunday night, they said. His wife Meera said when she went to the hotel on Sunday afternoon to meet him, the owner told her that he was out and would return by night.