Kolkata, Mar 20 (UNI) With the recovery of one more body, the toll in the five-storey under-construction illegal building collapse at Garden Reach in the city on Sunday night, left ten people dead, even though one more person is missing at the mishap site, official sources said on Wednesday.
The resumption of the rescue operation was also hampered on Wednesday by the untimely rain, even as the NDRF was gearing up for searching in the adjacent slum in Hazari Mollah Bagan of Paharpur Road, police said.
A survivor buried under the rubble was seen communicating with his cell phone with one of his relatives seeking evacuation last night, sources said.
Among the dead, two of them were women, who were sisters and identified as Shamim Begum (44) and Hasina Khatun (55).
One of their male relatives was also buried alive, and his body was extracted on Sunday night.
Two cousin and a mason were casualties who were sleeping on the 2nd floor of a multi-storey building under construction.
The building was being built for about a year after covering a water body there, local people alleged.
Promoter Md Wasim and his business partner Md Sarfraj were arrested. Sarfraj is also the landowner on the plot, where a 5-storey building was being built past one on a 4-foot lane.
Sources said six more multi-storey buildings were identified as illegal structures in the same area. Two of those have been tilted and are very close to each other.
UNI PC ARN SY