Yahoo – AFP, Sailendra Sil, March 31,
2016
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| The wreckage of a collapsed flyover in Kolkata, India, on March 31, 2016 (AFP Photo/Dibyangshu Sarkar) |
Hundreds of
emergency workers in India battled Thursday night to rescue dozens of people
still trapped after a flyover collapsed onto a busy street, killing at least 22
people and injuring nearly 100.
The flyover
was under construction when a 100-metre (330-feet) section collapsed suddenly
onto a crowded street in the eastern city of Kolkata around lunchtime, crushing
pedestrians, cars and other vehicles under huge concrete slabs and metal.
"The
death toll has risen to 22," Javed Ahmed Khan, disaster management
minister for the state of West Bengal, told AFP.
Anil
Shekhawat, a spokesman for the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), said
seventeen survivers out of 92 rescued were still undergoing treatment at
hospital.
Most
suffered multiple fractures and were in a critical condition, Shekhawat added,
saying that the death toll was expected to rise, with an unknown number of
people still trapped under the wreckage.
Specialist
rescue teams armed with concrete and metal cutters, drilling machines, sensors
to detect life and sniffer dogs were sifting through the rubble.
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India (AFP Photo)
|
Anurag
Gupta, a spokesman for the National Disaster Management Authority, told AFP
hundreds of rescuers would work through the night to rescue the trapped victims.
"Four
hundred men from NDRF and 300 Indian army men along with hundreds of police and
local officials are at the spot," Gupta said.
Authorities
sealed off the accident site to members of the public, who in the initial hours
were seen trying to pull away concrete slabs with their bare hands.
Workers
struggled to get cranes and other large machinery through the narrow streets of
Burrabazar, one of the oldest and most congested parts of the city, where
locals desperately waited for news of missing loved ones.
"Everything
is finished," screamed Parbati Mondal, whose fruit-seller husband had not
been seen since the accident.
An injured
builder told AFP at the scene that he had been working on the structure before
it collapsed and had seen bolts come out of the metal girders.
"We
were cementing two iron girders for the pillars, but the girders couldn't take
the weight of the cement," said 30-year-old Milan Sheikh before being
taken away to hospital.
"The
bolts started coming out this morning and then the flyover came crashing
down."
Construction
on the two-kilometre-long flyover began in 2009 and was supposed to be
completed within 18 months but has suffered a series of hold-ups.
The
disaster is the latest in a string of deadly construction accidents in India,
where enforcement of safety rules is weak and substandard materials are often
used.
'Like a
bomb blast'
Many locals
said they were fleeing their houses for fear that more of the damaged structure
could collapse.
"We
heard a massive bang sound and our house shook violently. We thought it was an
earthquake," 45-year-old resident Sunita Agarwal told AFP.
"We're
leaving -- who knows what will happen next."
The
disaster came just days before the World T20 cricket final, which is set to
draw thousands of fans to the city this Sunday.
Television
footage showed one bloodied body trapped under a concrete slab, and also the
hand of a person sticking out from under twisted debris.
An
eyewitness at the scene described a loud bang "like a bomb blast and
suddenly there was a lot of smoke and dust".
A crane was
seen lifting a mangled car from under the debris and part of a crushed bus was
visible protruding from the rubble, although it was unclear if it had been
carrying passengers.
K.P. Rao, a
representative of the Indian construction company IVRCL, which was contracted
to build the giant flyover, called the disaster an "act of God".
Their
offices in Kolkata were sealed by investigators and police filed an initial
charge of "culpable homicide not amounting to murder" against the
company.
The firm
was given an 18-month deadline and a budget of nearly $25 million to complete
the project in 2009, but after seven years only about 55 percent of the work
has been done.
In 2014 the
company wrote to the city's development authority to say it was running out of
funds to complete the project.
Mamata
Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal of which Kolkata is the capital,
told reporters those behind the disaster would "not be spared".
The
accident comes as the West Bengal government is about to face state elections,
with voting scheduled to start in early April and run until May.
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