Under-construction house collapses in Loni, one killed

GHAZIABAD: One labourer died while four others were injured after a concrete beam of an under-construction building collapsed in Loni’s Khanna Nagar colony on Sunday afternoon.

The labourer has been identified as Sarfaraz, a resident of Jabbar Garden colony. According to eyewitnesses, the owner of the plot — Om Prakash, who own a furniture godown on Delhi-Saharanpur road in Khanna Nagar — had hired a contractor, Saleem, to build a building on his 1,800 square foot plot. Four labourers — Firoz, Waseem, Shabir and Sarfaraz — were working on the one-storey building along with Saleem when a concrete beam caved in on Sunday afternoon. “A portion of the newly-constructed ceiling too came crashing down, trapping the labourers and the contractor under the debris. Though Saleem, Firoz, Waseem and Shabir sustained minor injuries and managed to come out, Sarfaraz was trapped under the debris till rescue workers reached the spot,” a resident of the area said.

The incident happened around 1.30pm and police were immediately informed. A rescue team soon reached the spot with earthmovers and cranes, but couldn’t rescue Sarfaraz.

The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) was then contacted for assistance, and a team arrived around 3.30pm. By the time they managed to take Sarfaraz out, he had already died.

SHO (Loni) Sanjay Verma said no FIR has been registered in the case as police are yet to get any complaints from the victim’s family. The body has been sent for a post-mortem. “Work on two beams was going on simultaneously. This might have resulted in too much pressure on the wooden shafts installed to provide support to beams, leading to the mishap,” an eyewitness said.

Over 40 labourers were working at the site at the time of the collapse.

Ghaziabad sub-divisional magistrate Aditya Prajapati has ordered an inquiry into the matter to find out whether the land owner obtained the requisite permission from authorities before starting the construction.