A portion of a 90-year-old dilapidated building, located on Sullivan Street in Mylapore, collapsed on Monday morning. No one was injured as the two families residing in the building were out at the time of the incident.
According to the police, the two-storey building located behind the government home for women belonged to the CSI Diocese of Madras.
Around 11.15 a.m. on Monday, a large wall suddenly collapsed, bringing down with it a portion of the entire building. All the four houses in the building remained locked.
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In the past, four families used to reside in the building on nominal rents. Two of them vacated over the past three years after the CSI church issued a notice to all the families, citing the dilapidated state of the old structure.
“Two families, including an elderly couple, and a woman and her young son, continued to live there, however. On Monday, all of them were out of the building when the accident took place,” said an investigating officer.
The police identified the inmates of the ground floor as Naveena Jansi (35) and her son Naveen (10).
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Jansi said she was sweeping the premises outside her house when the wall collapsed. “There was a cracking noise and slowly, a portion of my house crumbed in a cloud of dust. All my belongings are caught under the debris,” she said.
Jansi had planned to vacate the house next month as her husband Nagarajan, who is in the Army, was being posted to Chennai in August.
Gyanavoli (75) and Glory (64), who lived on the first floor, also escaped unhurt, as the elderly man had gone for work and his wife had gone to their daughter’s house, said Jansi.
The police sealed the building and the Chennai Corporation authorities who inspected the structure decided to demolish it, said an official.