Onlookers and rescue personnel at the scene of the collapsed hospital in Bhopal, yesterday.
BHOPAL: A portion of women’s ward at a hospital collapsed in Bhopal last evening injuring 14 people, including patients, who were trapped under the debris but there was no report of any death so far, officials said.
Rescuers moved in heavy machinery to cut through the crashed roof of the female surgical ward of Kasturba Hospital, hospital spokesman Vinodanand Jha said.
Debris showered on the ward’s inmates, trapping them after the roof tumbled at around 2:30pm, Jha said. He was unable to say how the accident occurred in the hospital, which is run by the state-owned Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. firm.
“Right now, relief operations are our priority and then we will try to find out how the accident happened,” he said.
A staffer for the ambulance service said the roof collapsed without any warning and fell “in a shower of debris of bricks and mortar”.
“It happened very suddenly,” the worker, who did not give his name, said by phone.
Bhopal witnessed the world’s worst industrial disaster in 1984 when tonnes of lethal toxic gas leaked from an Union Carbide pesticides plant, killing tens of thousands of city dwellers.
US-based Dow is the parent company of Union Carbide.
Agencies
