Two killed, 26 injured in Bhopal hospital collapse

With rescue operations in full swing at the site of a collapsed hospital building in Bhopal, which claimed two lives and injured 26, salvage teams have been able to retrieve and save several trapped persons from the debris late on Friday.

Sushil Agarwal, an eyewitness, said many are still stuck in the debris. "I heard that some 40 to 50 people were stuck inside the building. Some are lying buried under the debris. Some have been rescued. But some are still stuck," said Agarwal.

On Friday evening, the ceiling of the two-storeyed Kasturba Gandhi Hospital collapsed, trapping at least a dozen persons and also injuring many others.

Several fire tenders and earthmoving vehicles along with a platoon of the paramilitary forces were rushed to the site for rescue and relief operations.

Injured victims were rushed to the hospital's intensive care unit (ICU), even as personnel engaged in rescue and salvage operations cut through the rubble of bricks and mortar to evacuate the trapped persons.

Many Indian buildings do not conform to safety regulations, with owners constructing extra floors or structures without approval from the concerned authorities and beyond the sanctioned floor space index (FSI) or Floor Area Ration (FAR).

A shortage of cheap structural dwellings in Asia's third-largest economy has led to a rise in illegal construction by developers who use substandard materials and shoddy methods in order to offer rock-bottom rents to low-paid workers.