Kolkata: At least five people including two women died, when a multi-story, under-construction "illegal" building collapsed mid-Sunday night at Garden Reach in the city, official sources said on Monday.
While two men died at the nearest private nursing home near the accident site in south Kolkata, three males succumbed to their injuries at the state government-owned SSKM hospital, police and medics said.
All the dead have been identified.
Sources said some more people are suspected of being buried under the rubble .
The NDRF, fire brigade personnel, and municipal authorities, aided by the local people, are on a rescue operation and removing rubble to check if there are any survivors there.
West Bengal Chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who is also nursing her head injury following a fall at her Kalighat home last week, rushed to the area to see the rescue operation on the serpentine lanes. She also announced monetary and medical assistance to the kin of the deceased as well as the injured.
Banerjee also visited the private nursing home near the accident site to see the injured.
"I was saddened to learn about the house collapse disaster of an under-construction building in the Garden Reach area of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation. Our Mayor, Fire Minister, Secretaries, and Commissioner of Police, civic, police, fire, and disaster management officers and teams have been on site throughout the night for mitigating the disaster," the Chief Minister wrote on X.
She said the government will provide compensation to the next of kin of each deceased and injured person.
"We stand by the distressed families, and rescue operations will continue," Banerjee said on the microblogging site.
The city mayor and state Urban Development Minister, Firhad Hakim, said one person was arrested in this connection.
