Parrys Corner building collapse: ‘No victims found yet, search to continue’

CHENNAI: A four-storeyed dilapidated building on Armenian Street-Mooker Nallamuthu street junction near Parrys Corner which was under renovation collapsed on Wednesday morning, raising concerns about workers caught inside.

However, after eight hours of joint search operation by personnel of NDRF (National Disaster Response Force), TNDRF (Tamil Nadu Disaster Response Force), TNFRS (Tamil Nadu Fire and Rescue Services) and the city police, authorities declared that the likelihood of persons caught under the debris is minimal.

"So far, from our search operations, we have not found any victims. We cannot confirm yet though. The search operations will continue," said Priya Ravichandran, Joint Director (Northern Region), TNFRS.

Those identified as injured in the accident are passersby who were standing near the building when it collapsed around 10 am. Three persons, M Arasu (51), a rickshaw puller, N Parthiban (50), a DMK functionary and Mohamed Rafique, a driver were treated at the Government Stanley Hospital.

According to Priya, the fire department received a call around 10.30 am after which the ERT (Emergency Rescue Tender) with the rescue tool kit reached the scene within minutes, followed by firemen trained in search and rescue operations.

Soon, personnel from NDRF and TNDRF too reached the scene and used modern equipment such as thermal scanner, victim location camera to ascertain if there are persons caught under the debris.

The rescue teams operated as per the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) followed in cases of structural collapse and cleared the debris by hand and used sniffer dogs and their equipment for several hours to find out if any person is caught below the debris.

Later in the day, excavators were pressed into service to clear the debris sooner after it became apparent that the likelihood of a person caught under is less.

Meanwhile, Chennai Police perused the CCTV cameras in the neighbourhood and found only one woman making ingress and egress from the now collapsed building. "She seemed like a local. But, so far no one has come forward enquiring about a missing woman,” a senior police officer at the scene said.

Esplanade Police booked the four persons- the building owners, Bharat Chand and Deepak Chand, supervisor, Mukesh and site engineer, Rajesh under Sections 288 (negligent conduct while renovating buildings), 337 (causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety) and 427 (committing mischief causing loss) of IPC. Police investigations revealed that the building was originally owned by another family and was transferred to the present owners recently. were happening for the past two months, according to the locals.