15 Persons crushed in midnight wall collapse in Pune

At least 15 people including four children and one woman were killed after a wall of a housing society collapsed in Pune post midnight, following heavy rains.

As per initial information, the wall collapsed on a slum where labourers were sleeping. Pune guardian minister Chandrakant Dada Patil said most of the victims were labourers from Bihar and Orissa.”

“The workers were living in a camp of an under construction site,” said Pune district collector Naval Kishore Ram.“Wall collapsed due to heavy rains. Prima facie, builder seems to be at fault as he set labour camp right adjacent to the wall,” he added.

Minister Patil said he had sought details to ascertain if legal procedure were followed in setting up the labourers’ camp.Pune district collector has ordered an inquiry into the incident. City police commissioner K Venkatesham confirmed that the authorities were “checking if proper building permissions had been taken.” “If required, FIR will be filed against those at fault, he said.”

The retaining wall that collapsed was of Alcon Stylus housing society in Kondhwa area.

Pune received over 73.1 millimetres of rain in the past 24 hours, the second highest rainfall in June since 2010.

An NDRF team said it recovered 2 bodies while the remaining were recovered by the fire brigade.