A portion of women’s ward at a hospital collapsed in Bhopal on Friday evening injuring 14 people, including patients, who were trapped under the debris but there was no report of any death so far, officials said.
S.R. Prasad, Executive Director of BHEL, which runs the Kasturba Hospital, told PTI at the collapse site that a total of 14 persons, including patients and hospital staff, were trapped under the debris of the two-storey building.
“I am confident that nobody lost his life in the incident and all 14 of them have been rescued and were admitted in another wing of the same hospital,” Mr. Prasad said.
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According to him, some tiling work was going on in the nearly 50-year-old building at the time of the collapse.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced an ex-gratia of Rs. 50,000 to those injured in the incident, official sources said.
There was chaos at the hospital following the collapse as a large number of people thronged the hospital to enquire about what had happened there. A crane was pressed into service to clear the debris and police had a tough time to control the crowd.
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Senior government and police officials, including the Collector Nikunj Shrivastava, DIG Sriniwas Verma and SP Anshuman Singh supervised the rescue operation.
Leader of the Opposition in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly Ajay Singh, who also rushed to the hospital, alleged the incident took place due to the “failure” of the district administration and the BHEL management.
State Urban Administration and Development Minister, Babulal Gaur, in whose assembly constituency, Govindpura, the incident took place, was among the first to reach the site.
Mr. Gaur’s daughter-in-law and Bhopal Mayor Krishna Gaur also came to the site along with a team of the Bhopal Municipal Corporation that carried out rescue operations.