Gujarat: Two dead after under-construction mall wall collapses on house

BHARUCH: A father and his 21-year-old son were killed after a wall at the under-construction World Trade Centre shopping mall site collapsed onto a nearby house in Gujarat's Bharuch district, during heavy overnight rain on Wednesday, officials said.

The incident occurred at around 2.30 a.m. in the Ali Matariya Talab area of the city, where a section of the construction site's boundary wall gave way and crashed onto a residential house.

According to officials, four members of a family were inside the house when the wall collapsed.

Two women managed to escape or were rescued safely, while the father and his son became trapped beneath the debris.

Fire Officer Chirag Gadhvi of the Bharuch Municipality said the fire brigade was alerted immediately after the control room received information about the collapse.

"At around 2.30 a.m., the Control Room informed us about the collapse of a wall in the Ali area of Bharuch city. Following the alert, a team from the Bharuch Fire Brigade, along with a rescue tender, was immediately dispatched to the accident site," Gadhvi said.

Rescue personnel removed the trapped victims from the rubble and rushed them to Bharuch Civil Hospital. However, doctors declared both of them dead on arrival.

A local resident, whose uncle's house was struck by the collapsing wall, said the accident followed heavy rainfall overnight.

"There were four people inside; two managed to get out, but the other two were trapped. We called the fire brigade, and they arrived and rescued the two trapped individuals. This incident occurred because the wall collapsed following the rainfall," he said.

Devendra Vasava, President of the Bharuch Municipal Council, confirmed that four people had been trapped under the debris.

"After the Municipal Council was informed, the fire department was alerted immediately. The rescue team managed to save two people, but unfortunately, two others, a father and his son, lost their lives in the incident," Vasava said.

Municipal authorities have ordered an investigation into the collapse to determine the circumstances that led to the failure of the wall at the construction site.