One woman was killed while around five people are feared trapped in the rubble after roofs of five floors of an 18-floor building collapsed last evening. According to reports, the dining room floor of an apartment on the sixth floor in the Chintels Paradiso housing complex first came down, triggering the collapse of roofs and floors under it till the first floor. The casualties would have been far more had people been living on all the floors. According to the officials, construction work was underway on the sixth floor while the third to sixth floors of the building were vacant and people were living only on the first and second floors.
While Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said that he is personally monitoring the situation, teams from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) were deployed to carry out rescue work. Visuals from the spot showed people from neighbouring apartment blocks gathered outside the complex in sector 109. The NDRF has also deployed a dog squad to help in the rescue operations.
According to police officials, the deceased was identified as Ekta Bhardwaj while another man identified as Arun Kumar Srivastava was pulled out from the rubble and taken to the hospital. According to a PTI report, while people claimed his wife Sunita Srivastava succumbed to injuries, officials maintained that she is critical.
A detailed inquiry has been ordered into the incident by the administration and action has been promised in case of any lapse.
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar yesterday tweeted about the incident, saying rescue operations were on. “Administrative officials, along with SDRF and NDRF teams are busy in the rescue & relief work after the unfortunate collapse of the apartment roof at the Paradiso Housing Complex in Gurugram. I am personally monitoring the situation and I pray for everyone’s safety,” he said.
The housing complex management blamed the disaster on ‘negligence’ during repairs. “Upon preliminary investigations, we have come to know that some negligence in repair work done by the contractor in an apartment led to this incident,” it said, offering condolences to the affected families.