Dharmendra Joshi, Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, April 17. The death toll in the Jalandhar building collapse incident has risen to 10 while the count of those rescued from the rubble has touched 60. A number of workers were still feared trapped inside even as rescue operations were on.
The rescue operation for removing debris from the site gained momentum today morning, a few hours ahead of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal’s visit to the site at 2.15 pm. While six bodies had been extricated so far, four had been spotted under the collapsed building by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel. Efforts were on to extricate them.
Two bodies were extricated on Monday while four were pulled out from the debris today.
The Army and NDRF teams also succeeded in rescuing three workers alive from the debris between 10.30 pm on Monday and 6.58 am on Tuesday.
Satinder Kumar, a labourer, was rescued at 10.30 pm yesterday after remaining trapped for about 23 hours. Two more migrants, Vinod and Vir Davinder, were brought out at 5.40 am and 6.58 am, respectively, today.
The rescue work continued entire Monday night but for two hours when it was halted at 2 pm due to rain.
As many as six JCB machines, 14 tippers and 150 Jalandhar Municipal Corporation men are engaged in removing the rubble.
Municipal Commissioner BS Dhaliwal said, “It will take at least three more days to remove the debris.”
