At least five people have been killed and at least 15 injured after the roof of a bus terminal collapsed in Somanur on the outskirts of Coimbatore on Thursday.
The roof of the terminal had weakened and developed cracks due to heavy rains for the last three days in Coimbatore, and abruptly gave way at 2pm on Thursday. Part of the collapsed roof fell on a government bus parked at the terminus.
The five deceased are Sivakumar (43) from Madurai, Dharani (20) from Ichaipatti in Coimbatore, Thulasi from Kittampalayam and Eswari (40) from Sulur, and an unidentified man aged about 65.
The bus terminal comes under Karumathampatti municipality, which is 25 km from Coimbatore. Around 30 passengers were waiting for a bus when the roof of the bus terminal fell on them.
People living near the bus terminus informed the police and fire rescue teams about the incident.
A man who was witness to the incident said, “We heard a sound of people screaming and a bus glass breaking. When we came here, we saw that the roof had completely fallen down and some people had broken their hand, some their leg. There were about eight women who were badly injured.”
Police and fire and rescue personnel immediately rushed to the scene, and began rescue operations. Over 15 people were pulled out from under the rubble. However, according to the Collector of Coimbatore, three people had died by the time rescuers could reach them.
The injured, as well as the bodies of the dead, were immediately taken to the Coimbatore Government Hospital.
There are more than 100 police personnel, three fire and rescue teams and 13 ambulances at work at the scene of the collapse.
Cranes are being used to remove all the rubble from the spot. Pa Moorthy, Superintendent of Police, Coimbatore told TNM that the rubble has been cleared and no other people were found trapped underneath.
The bus terminus was built in 1996 and public has blamed the authorities for not carrying out any maintenance work at the terminus in the last one year.
"It has been three years that the tender for this bus terminus was given out but still no work has been done here," one of the residents said.