2 hurt after top floors of building collapse

SURAT: Two persons were injured when the drawing room of a flat on the eighth floor of nine-storeyed Shubham-I collapsed, which had a cascading effect and brought down the drawing room on the seventh floor of the apartment here on Saturday.
Priyal, two, and her grandmother Kalavati Shah, 60, residents of apartment number 801, fell down to the sixth floor with the collapsed slab but were lucky to escape with injuries.Local people shifted them to a hospital by the time fire brigade arrived at the spot. Four members of the Shah family were in flat number 801 when the floor collapsed. Two members — Priyanka and Jinay — were trapped as the drawing room that connected their flat to the staircase and elevator had collapsed. Fire brigade personnel rescued them using a snorkel.
Seventh floor apartment was vacant while only one person lived on sixth floor flat but he had gone out.
Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) officers said the apartment built 18 years ago required maintenance and the residents were served notices in the past. A few residents had carried out maintenance at their apartments while there was no agreement between other residents on the issue. “The fifth floor resident had carried out major maintenance of ceiling and floor in his apartment. This prevented the slabs of eighth and seventh floors from tunnelling through the sixth floor. The accident could have led to loss of many lives,” said a resident.
Meanwhile, SMC asked all residents to vacate the building. Many residents vacated the apartment after putting all their valuables in travel bags. “The building was examined by a team of structural engineers subsequent to which the residents were instructed to vacate it. A notice was served to the residents asking them not to live in it anymore,” said H B Parikh, deputy engineer of the south-west zone, SMC.
In a similar accident, the floor of flat number 604 of nine-storeyed Kanaiya Palace had collapsed on April 29, 2014, in the city. Three persons were killed on the spot and three others were taken out from under the rubble. Fire brigade personnel also rescued 45 other residents who were stranded on the upper floors of the apartment for several hours together.