The sudden rain in Bengaluru on Wednesday evening resulted in a tragedy as seven people lost their lives after a compound wall collapsed near the Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital.
ANI shared a video on X that shows on-site visuals of the compound wall collapse. It captures debris, broken wall sections and rubble all around.
What happened?
Deputy Chief Minister and Minister in charge of Bengaluru, D K Shivakumar, said that some people taking shelter against the wall during heavy rainfall were killed when it collapsed.
"I am deeply pained to learn about this incident. Such things should not have happened. Many trees have fallen, and vehicles were damaged. I will direct officials to cut the weak trees because there was a risk of such tragedies happening again during the monsoon".
What caused the collapse?
Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah told media, “Prima facie, it appears to have fallen due to that pressure. So I have asked the engineers - the Executive Engineer and Assistant Executive Engineer - whether they had checked if it had become weak or not.”
Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar visited the incident site on Wednesday. While talking to the media, he said, “The CM has also visited the site. The incident is very unfortunate. A very old wall has collapsed.”
{{/usCountry}}Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar visited the incident site on Wednesday. While talking to the media, he said, “The CM has also visited the site. The incident is very unfortunate. A very old wall has collapsed.”
{{/usCountry}}“A total of eight people have lost their lives in Bengaluru, seven in this incident and one in an incident in Vega City Mall. Among the seven who died, five were street vendors. Two were residents of Kerala who came to Bengaluru to do marketing,” he added
"All our teams are on the ground, checking for locations wherever there have been perennial cases of flooding. All of those areas are being intensively re-looked at again,” Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) Chief Commissioner Maheshwar Rao M told ANI.
Reportedly, the seven killed in the incident included three children.
CM announces compensation:
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah announced an ex gratia of ₹5 lakh as compensation for the next of kin of each victim who died in the wall collapse.
" ₹5 lakh solatium will be given to the kin of each deceased. Because, unfortunately, those who died are very poor people - traders, street vendors," the CM said.
He added, “Seven people have died… seven people are injured. All of them are stable. They are all out of danger. I have told the doctors to provide treatment free of cost."
CM orders inquiry:
"We will conduct an inquiry to see whether the engineers are at fault. If they are found responsible, action will be taken against them immediately," Siddaramaiah said.