Death toll rises to 4 in Kolkata building collapse; 13 rescued

KOLKATA: The death toll in the collapse of the under-construction building in South Kolkata has risen to four, city police said on Monday. A five-storey under-construction building collapsed in Kolkata's Garden Reach area late on March 17.

"The death toll in South Kolkata's Metiabruz building collapse incident has reached 4," Kolkata police said.

Earlier in the day, West Bengal Fire and Emergency Services Minister Sujit Bose said that 13 people were rescued from the site of the mishap. "As many as 13 people have just been rescued. Rs 5 lakh will be given as compensation to the next of kin of the deceased and Rs 1 lakh will be given to those injured," Bose said.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee visited the site of the incident and also met with the injured at a hospital in South Kolkata. Expressing grief over the incident, Banerjee wrote on the social media platform X, "Sad to learn about the house collapse disaster of an under-construction building in the Garden Reach area of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation. Our mayor, fire minister, secretaries and Commissioner of police, civic, police, fire and disaster management officers and teams (including NDRF, KMC and KP teams) have been on site throughout the night to mitigate the disaster."

"This is an illegal construction. I express my condolences to the families. I will urge the administration to take strict action against those involved in illegal construction. When this construction was going on, those involved should have been more vigilant," Banerjee said.