Lucknow building collapse: Death toll rises to 8; 28 injured

Lucknow, Sep 8 (PTI) The death toll in the building collapse here climbed to eight with rescuers pulling out three more bodies from the debris, officials said on Sunday.

Twenty-eight people were injured when the three-storey building housing godowns and a motor workshop collapsed in the Transport Nagar area here on Saturday evening.

The State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) recovered the bodies of three people, who were identified as Raj Kishore (27), Rudra Yadav (24) and Jagrup Singh (35), during the rescue operation, Relief Commissioner G S Naveen said.

The operation is still underway.

A senior district administration official said they are now focusing on ensuring that no one else is trapped under the rubble.

Police said the building was constructed around four years ago and some construction work was underway at the time of the incident. Most of the victims were working on the ground floor when the incident occurred at 4:45 pm on Saturday.

The injured have been admitted to various hospitals, including Lok Bandhu Hospital, in the district.

According to the officials, the building had a motor workshop and warehouse on the ground floor, a medical godown on the first floor and a cutlery warehouse on the second floor.

Akash Singh, who worked in the medical godown and was among the injured, said a pillar of the building had developed a crack.

"We had come down to the ground floor because it was raining. We noticed that a pillar of the building had developed a crack. Suddenly, the entire building collapsed on us," he said. PTI