Five die as houses collapse in rain-hit Bangalore

Bangalore, Sep 15 (IANS): Five people, including two children and two women, died in three separate incidents of houses collapse since late Friday due to incessant rains across the city, police said Saturday.

"Two boys (Manoj and Pranoj) died in early Saturday while they were asleep when the roof of their house at Domlur (in the eastern suburbs) caved in under the weight of an adjacent compound wall. Though their mother Nagamma escaped with injuries, her twin sons perished in the debris," a police official told reporters here.

State Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy, who is in charge of the city, rushed to the spot to inspect the accident and announced Rs.4 lakh compensation to the bereaved family which lost its two school-going children.

Nagamma blamed the army for building the compound wall without pillars, as her house at a lower level in a slum area bore the brunt of the soil beneath it giving way in the heavy rain.

In another accident, an elderly couple - Siddappa and Sanjeevamma - died when the wall of their rented house collapsed at Thimmasandra in the northern suburb due to heavy rain late Friday.

"The couple had come to the city from their native village in Tumkur district (about 70km away) to live with their son working in a nearby vineyard. As the house was in a dilapidated condition, one of its walls collapsed due to heavy rain and gusty winds," a police official said.

In the third incident, 43-year-old homemaker N. Saraswati died at Rajarajeshwarinagar in the city's southern suburb when a portion of the house crashed on her while she was asleep early Saturday.

Low pressure in the Bay of Bengal and strong surface winds have resulted in heavy rains battering the city during this week leading to water logging and inundation of low-laying areas across the city.

In a related development, a lake embankment in the city's eastern suburb off the old Madras road breached earlier in the day flooding the surrounding residential localities as the overflowing rain water gushed out, a civic official said.