Bangalore, Oct 10 (DHNS): Three people, including a man and his 10-year-old son, were killed in two rain-related accidents in the City on Thursday morning.
Subramani (38), a private firm employee, and his son Karan Sai (10), a class 5 student, were buried alive after a two-storey house collapsed in Jogupalya in Ulsoor due to heavy rains. In the other incident, a cook was electrocuted in the basement of a temple in Basaveshwaranagar which was flooded by rains.
The Ulsoor police said that a building next to Subramani’s house collapsed around 1 am, burying him and his son alive. Komathi Devi, 51, and her son Kiran, 16, who were living in the two-storeyed building, suffered injuries and were admitted to the Bowring Hospital.
On Wednesday night, Subramani and his family members were asleep in their house. When Subramani heard a rumbling noise past midnight, he rushed out and saw the neighbouring house cracking up. He alerted his family members and the neighbours to run to safety.
Subramani, who was standing outside the building, went to get his bike that was parked next to the wall of the crumbling building. Sai also ran to take out his bicycle, which was parked a little further. Subramani spotted his son and went further to get him out.
But before the father and son could run to safety, the building fell on them. Luckily, Devi and her son ran out of the house and escaped with minor injuries. The neighbours called the police and took the injured to the Bowring Hospital. The police, the BBMP and the fire brigade retrieved the two bodies after a couple of hours.
A police officer said, “It was a 60-year-old building and a creeper had grown along its wall till the terrace. The occupants of the house had refused to remove the creeper as they considered it sacred. The creeper had dampened the wall which made it feeble and weak.”
The neighbours told the police that the BWSSB had recently dug up the road to lay new drainage pipes but had not covered it properly, which led to waterlogging. “Heavy rains in the last few days had further weakened the old building,” Esther Rani, a neighbour, said.
The Ulsoor police have registered a case.
Electrocuted
In the other incident, 40-year-old Shivashankar was electrocuted in the basement of the Sai Baba temple located on 10th main road in Basaveshwaranagar.
Shivashankar was in charge of cooking ‘prasadam’ in the temple. When he went to the basement in the morning to start cooking, he found the basement filled with rainwater. Around 7 am, he went to the basement to switch on the water pump but there was no power. He came back around 8 am and switched on the pump, leading to electrocution.
The priest and devotees at the temple heard the victim screaming and rushed there. They took him to a nearby hospital which declared him brought dead. The police suspect that Shivashankar had stepped on a live electric wire. There is also a possibility of him being electrocuted due to grounding.