Eleven persons died, over 17 injured, some of them seriously, while at least five more persons are trapped when the concrete roof of one of the city's noted Irani restaurant, Hotel City Light collapsed early on Monday morning.
The mishap occurred at around 6.30 a.m. and most of the victims were either daily wage labourers who gathered there every morning for their morning cup of tea and bun before going to work and also hotel workers.
While the cause of the collapse of the roof is not yet known, police officials suspect that internal constructions like putting up a new rolling shutter or putting up the huge stoves to make the Ramzan delicacy - Haleem, in the upper floors could have led to the incident.
Police, Fire & Disaster Management and the GHMC teams rushed to the site within minutes of learning of the incident. However, they could not do much with regard to the rescue of the persons trapped under the collapsed roof as they did not have the crucial equipment like the gas cutters or thermal scanners. Traffic came to a standstill as scores of onlookers gathered at the site. TV news vehices too parked hapazhardly became an obstacle for relief and rescue teams from getting into the mishap site.
It was only when then disaster management team from the National Industrial Security Academy (NISA) came to the site on being called by the GHMC that these vital equipment like gas cutters to cut through the steel-concrete slab and thermal scanners to scout for the trapped persons was used.
"I have having tea with my friends - Swamy, Sailu and others when the ground seemed to have given away and the roof was coming down. We immediately rushed out and also dragged some people out. We could also see fire breaking out of the kitchen," said Shankar, a daily wage worker, who was inside the hotel.
GHMC Commissioner M.T. Krishna Babu told the media at the site that the building was not among the dilapidated structures listed by the engineering/town planning wing. The modern facade might have led to the building missing from the danger structures list and internal works may have led to the mishap, he observed.
A police case was being registered against the owners and it was also being ascertained if the restaurant has a trade license. The injured have been shifted to Gandhi Hospital.
Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, Leader of Opposition N. Chandrababu Naidu, former Minister T. Srinivas Yadav, Police Commissioner Anurag Sharma, and others visited the place.
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