A week after 61 people died in a building collapse here, 11 labourers were crushed to death on Sunday when a portion of nearly 20-feet compound wall of an under-construction warehouse fell on a row of make-shift huts at Upparapalayam village near Alamatti in Tiruvallur district.
The warehouse is said to be belonging to a soft drinks company. Police sources in the headquarters here said fire service officials rescued a 19-year-old youth from the debris and he was immediately admitted to the hospital where his condition is said to be serious.
“The mishap occurred around 2 am. It came to light when people in the area saw the tents levelled to the ground and the labourers buried under a huge mound of debris,” a senior police official said.
All the victims were migrant construction workers hailing from Andhra Pradesh and were sleeping in their tents adjoining the compound wall when the tragedy occurred. Localites said since Saturday was their weekly payment day, several of them had collected their wages and left the place. “If it had been a week-day, the toll would have been higher,” they said.
Tiruvallur District Collector Veeraraghava Rao, who monitored the relief works, said all the rescue works were completed and the debris cleared using cranes and earth movers.
“Eleven people were killed in the incident. One person was rescued alive and admitted to the hospital. All the bodies were pulled out from the rubble and sent to the hospital for postmortem,” he told reporters.
The official said a case has been registered against the company and a thorough investigation will be conducted, including whether the firm had constructed the wall against the prescribed norms.
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