Mannargudi govt hospital outpatient block sinks

TIRUVARUR: Panic gripped patients and staff after the outpatient block at the District Headquarters Government Hospital in Mannargudi near Tiruvarur sank on Wednesday morning.
The walls and floor of the building developed cracks. Grill on the windows were bent.
There was no casualty or injury as all the outpatients, doctors and medical staff left building immediately. The incident happened around 9am.
The outpatient block was built in 1971.
Joint director of health services, Tiruvarur, Dr D Uma, chief medical officer of the hospital Vijayakumar and deputy superintendent of police, Mannargudi, Karthik and a team of police and personnel from the fire and rescue services rushed to the spot.
All the medicines, medical equipment and furniture have been shifted to a newly constructed block. The building has been barricaded.
Dr Uma told TOI that since the building was nearly 50 years old, the front side of the structure slightly sank.
“Since it was Eid-ul-Fitr holiday, the number of patients was very less, say around 200. No one was injured in this incident. Necessary steps would be taken to replace the damaged single storey outpatient block”, she said.