In an early morning tragedy, four persons, including a couple and a six-year-old boy, were killed and five others injured after a three-storey building in the Rockfort area here collapsed.
The couple’s one-and-a-half-year-old girl child trapped under the debris for nearly eight hours escaped miraculously without any major injury. Firefighters rescued the infant around noon.
The nearly 70-year-old structure, housing four families, located just a few metres away from the Rockfort temple along the narrow Thanjavur Kula Street came down around 3.45 a.m. after rain lashed the area on Saturday night.
The entire place was engulfed in dust with the concrete rubble falling on the narrow lane blocking public and vehicular movements, said locals. Harried residents who were woken up by the loud sound rushed out of their homes and immediately alerted the police, the 108 ambulance service, fire and rescue services personnel and civic officials.
Police said a father-son duo — M. Karthik, 42, and K. Harish, 6 — who resided on the second floor of the building died, while Karthik’s wife Karthika, 29, was rescued with injuries.
₹2 lakh solatium
Condoling the death of four persons, Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami said ₹5 lakh would be put in fixed deposit in the name of the child who survived the incident so that a monthly interest of ₹4,062 could be obtained for her maintenance. He also announced a solatium of ₹2 lakh to the families of the dead, ₹50,000 to those severely injured and ₹25,000 to those who suffered minor injuries.