At least six workers were killed and several more injured after a portion of an under-construction building collapsed on them in Pune’s Yerwada area late Thursday, Februry 3, 2022, night.
According to police officials, the tragedy occurred sometime around 11 p.m. when the building slab of a mall under construction came crashing down at a site in Yerwada’s Shastrinagar area, killing six labourers and trapping five or six more.
The death toll is expected to rise, said the police.
“Six persons have so far been found dead and their bodies were immediately taken to the city’s Sassoon Hospital. The deceased have yet to be identified. Further investigations are underway,” said a police inspector from Yerwada police station.
Pune, with its indiscriminate urbanisation, has witnessed a string of accidents in recent years, where the victim has generally been the luckless labourer.
A major accident took place in the city’s Kondhwa area in June 2019 when 15 labourers and their kin (including four children) were killed in an incident of wall collapse.
In October 2017, three labourers were killed and one more seriously injured after the slab of an under-construction building collapsed in Pune’s Dattawadi area.
In July 2016, nine labourers were killed on the spot after a slab of an under-construction building collapsed in the city’s Balewadi area.
On December 2012, as many as 13 labourers were killed when a slab of an under-construction building caved in at Wagholi, 20 km from the city.
Prior to that, in September that same year, six persons were killed on the spot and several more injured after a four-storey residential building caved in the city’s Sahakar Nagar area.