Three lives have been lost in a tragic building collapse in Anuppur, Madhya Pradesh with many others feared to be trapped under the rubble. The accident happened at the Kotma bus stand where a four storey lodge collapsed at any given moment, creating panic in the commercial district.
The failure occurred at approximately 5.30 PM on Saturday according to the officials. The building, which was the Agrawal Lodge and estimated to be approximately a decade long, was situated in a congested इलाके close to the bus stand, and this cast doubts on the security of other structures in the area. It is estimated that approximately 10-12 labourers and occupants could have been indoors when the collapse occurred.
The specific moment the lodge collapsed has been filmed on a chilling CCTV video in a nearby building. The video captures the building slowly leaning forward until it collapses in a huge puff of dust in just a few seconds, which covered the surrounding space.
Investigations into the causes of the collapse are still underway; initial evidence indicates that the groundwork of the foundation of a neighbouring house might have undermined the base of the building, which caused it to collapse. Superintendent of Police Moti-ur-Rehman confirmed that a large scale rescue exercise is on, which includes almost 100 police officers, as well as the teams of the State Disaster and Emergency Relief Force (SDERF).
The rescue workers are still trying to find and extract the survivors off the rubble. The government has promised to do everything possible and that the investigation continues to establish culpability and to avoid future occurrences of the same.