LUCKNOW: Indian rescuers on Sunday pulled out eight bodies from the rubble of a three-storey building in the city of Lucknow, reports said.
Local media broadcast images of piles of concrete, and state rescue teams with heavy machines digging and searching for bodies. The state minister has called the deaths “heart breaking”.
The commercial building, which had been under the use of multiple small companies collapsed on Saturday afternoon. According to officials eight bodies had been pulled out, and 28 people were wounded.
It was not clear if the people were still trapped. The cause of the building collapse is not known, but such accidents are common during India’s June-September monsoon season.
Akash Singh, who worked in the building that collapsed said a pillar had developed a crack. He had moved to the ground floor as it would worsen, with monsoon rains in the city. “Suddenly, the entire building collapsed on us,” Singh said.
Uttar Pradesh state chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, in a statement, termed the deaths “heart breaking”, and offered his condolences to the grieving families.
