CHENNAI: A wall under construction inside a medical college near Kancheepuram crashed, trapping close to 11 workers and leaving 7 of them badly injured. The only saving grace for the workers, if it can be called that, was that medical aid was in close proximity.
According to police officials, construction work had begun earlier this week at the private medical college and hospital in Karaipettai. Construction workers had been just finished digging to construct a basement level for a new building and had started filling the space between the existing wall and the upcoming one with sand, when disaster struck.
At 3:30 pm, the 15 feet high wall came crashing down and trapped the men and women who were engaged in the sand-filling exercise.
After the initial pandemonium, their co-labourers swung into action and began to hack away at the pile of concrete and dust and got all of them out sans casualty.
The injured workers were identified as Murugan (38), Ethiraj (40), Poonjolai (40), Sasikala (41), Santhi (35), Babu (39) and Rekha (25). The last two were the worst injured and were pulled out only after an hour.
Police, revenue and district administration officials rushed to the spot and conducted an inspection. Police are investigating further.
District Collector K Bhaskaran has held preliminary inquiries with the college authorities.
According to the workers their apprehension about the stability of the newly-raised barely two-day old wall was brushed aside and they were asked to carry out the sand filling work.
Meanwhile, the district collector has ordered that all the seven injured be referred to the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital for treatment.