West Bengal chief minister visits Stephen Court

West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today visited the Stephen Court building on Park Street where a major fire claimed 24 lives.

After briefly reviewing the situation with city Police commissioner Goutam Mohan Chakraborty and director general of Fire Services, Gopal Bhattacharya, the chief minister entered the building and stayed there for about five minutes.
  
Chakraborty later told reporters that the chief minister had instructed the police and the fire brigade to quickly rescue anyone still trapped inside and asked the Kolkata Municipal Corporation to pull down the damaged portion of the the 150-year-old heritage building housing restaurants, offices and residences.
   
The police commissioner said there was hardly any chance of anyone remaining alive in the affected portion of the building and the fire brigade was still looking for bodies.