Three injured in wall collapse at petrol bunk

Three men sustained injuries when the compound wall of Raviteja petrol bunk on Kanteerava Studio road collapsed on them on Thursday afternoon.

A part of the compound wall collapsed at around 12.30 pm into the bunk area on a petrol pump and the air counter. Two employees of the bunk and a customer who was getting his tank refilled sustained minor injuries in the accident.

Ravi, an employee of the petrol bunk, said, “As I was working at another pump nearby, I heard some crashing sound and when I looked up, I noticed a mango tree near the other pump moving. I soon saw the compound wall behind the tree come crashing down. It all happened in a fraction of a second.”

Manjunath, another employee, said that they saw the three of them trapped beneath the debris of the wall. They rushed and  rescued them. The injured are Rasool, 26, Chandrashekhar, 50, both employees of the petrol bunk, and R V Vijayraje Urs, 58, a customer who was getting the fuel tank of his bike refilled.

Rasool was at the air counter and sustained the maximum injuries. An electricity pole just behind the compound wall also collapsed and Rasool was trapped beneath the pole. He suffered a fracture on his left limb and is being treated at Hosmat Hospital. The electricity wire got cut as the pole collapsed and Rasool escaped being electrocuted.

Urs, a resident of Krishnanand Nagar, told Deccan Herald that he was a regular customer at the bunk and he was caught unawares when the wall collapsed. He has suffered minor injuries on the leg. He was treated at a private hospital nearby and later discharged.

Rajesh, the owner of the bunk, said that the compound wall was built with stones in 1995 when he started the bunk. The land behind the petrol bunk was a kharab government land lying unused for many years now.

He said the authorities recently dumped loads of debris and mud on the land and built a lorry stand. The authorities piled up the mud against the wall and levelled it with a road roller. He said that this put a lot of pressure on the wall and incessant rain in the past two weeks had weakened it as there was not outlet for the water.