Bengaluru: The death toll in the building collapse at Dharwad in north Karnataka rose to three today with one more body recovered from the rubble, police said.
Rescuers have so far pulled out 56 people from the debris of the four-storeyed building under construction, which collapsed Tuesday evening at Kumareshwaranagar in the heart of Dharwad, about 400 km from here.
Police said rescue operations have been intensified to extricate 30 people believed to be still trapped beneath the debris. In addition to 10 ambulances and five fire tenders deployed for relief and rescue operations, three teams of the National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) have been pressed into service, two from Ghaziabad and one from Bengaluru.
“Two more teams of NDRF are being airlifted from Ghaziabad in addition to one team which was moved from Bangalore in connection with Dharwad building collapse,” the NDRF tweeted. About 150 police, fire and emergency personnel too have joined the rescue operations. No arrests have been made so far.
Former Karnataka Minister and Congress leader from the region Vinay Kulkarni said Tuesday that one of the partners in the building was his relative and that whoever was involved should face action. An eye-witness had alleged that the building did not have the capacity to bear four storeys whereas an extra floor was being added. “The builders had used substandard materials,” he told reporters Tuesday. Most of those trapped were migrant labourers from north India who were engaged in laying tiles.