Sowcarpet building collapse: One more person succumbs to injuries

CHENNAI: Barely a day after a 60-year old died due to the collapse of a dilapidated building, one more person succumbs to injuries at the hospital.

On Friday evening, at around 7 pm a dilapidated building in Mint street at Sowcarpet collapsed injuring the pedestrians who were walking. One died and three were injured in the accident. On Saturday morning, Sankar succumbed to injuries failing to respond to treatments.

Police sources said that the incident happened around 7 pm, when the building caved down suddenly and fell on the pedestrians who were walking along the building. Vendors ,who had set up shop along the road, ran for cover and in a few minutes local police and personnel from the Tamil Nadu Fire and Rescue Services (TNFRS) reached the scene.

The dead was identified as U Gangu Devi. The three injured were identified as S Sankar, S Saravanan and S Sivakumar were admitted to Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital following the accident.

Madras high court had issued directions to authorities to take action against illegal buildings based on a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by activist ‘Traffic’ Ramasamy asking for buildings which have become dangerous and require demolition to be brought down.

Riaz, a resident of Sowcarpet said that despite several directions by the Madras high court, no action has been taken by the civic authorities.