Five of a family killed after roof collapses in Mirzapur

Times News Network
Varanasi: A couple and their two sons and a daughter were killed when the roof of their house collapsed in Chhoti Gudkari locality under the limits of City Kotwali police station in Mirzapur district on Wednesday.
District magistrate Mirzapur Praveen Kumar Laxkra and SP Ajay Kumar Singh, who camped at the incident site to monitor the rescue operation said, “The rescuers including the police and fire fighters initially recovered the bodies of Shubham (22), Saurabh (18), Sandhya (20) and their mother Gudia (48). After exercising hard for several hours the body of Gudia’s husband Umashankar (50) was also rescued and sent for postmortem examination. ADM (finance and revenue) UP Singh said that the district administration has extended financial assistance of Rs two lakh from chief minister relief fund for each deceased person.
Officials said that rescue operation took long as debris had to be removed manually to avoid further damage in the roof of upper floor of the two storied old and dilapidated building.
During initial investigation of the police it came to light that one Ashutosh Ranjan owned an old house in Chhoti Gudkari locality in front of City Kotwali police station in which several tenants dwelt. Umashankar had also hired a room in which he resided with wife Gudia and three children while his elder daughter Sapna has been staying at her maternal grandparents’place in Varanasi. Umashankar’s brother Dayashankar, his wife and two children also lived on rent in another room of the same building.
Umshankar and his family members were sleeping inside their room on Tuesday night. On Wednesday early morning the roof of their room collapsed and they all got buried alive under the debris. The incident led to chaos in the area. City Kotwali cops immediately swung into action while fire brigade personnel also reached the spot. However, despite calling bulldozers they preferred to remove debris manually to ensure that people stranded inside are saved by avoiding further damage to the structure of upper floor of the dilapidated building.
On being informed, the DM, SP, ADM City Vinay Singh, CO City Prabhat Rai and many other officials also reached there. Despite exercising hard Umashankar and his family members could not be saved.