Portion of Bhopal hospital collapses, 14 injured

Fourteen people were injured when a portion of the women's ward at a hospital in Bhopal collapsed on Friday evening.

S R Prasad, executive director of the Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd which runs the Kasturba Hospital, told PTI at the collapse site that 14 people, including patients and hospital staff, were trapped under the debris of the two-storey building.

"I am confident that nobody lost his life in the incident. All 14 have been rescued and were admitted in another wing of the same hospital," Prasad said.

According to him, some tiling work was going on in the nearly 50-year-old building at the time of the collapse.

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has announced an ex-gratia of Rs 50,000 to those injured in the incident, official sources said.

There was chaos at the hospital following the collapse as a large number of people thronged the site to enquire about what had happened there. A crane was pressed into service to clear the debris and police had a tough time while controlling the crowd.

Senior government and police officials, including Collector Nikunj Shrivastava, Deputy Inspector General of Police Sriniwas Verma and Superintendent of Police Anshuman Singh supervised the rescue operation.

Leader of the Opposition in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly Ajay Singh, who also rushed to the hospital, alleged that the incident took place due to the "failure" of the district administration and the BHEL management.

State Urban Administration and Development Minister Babulal Gaur, in whose assembly constituency Govindpura the incident took place, was among the first to reach the site.

Gaur's daughter in-law and Bhopal Mayor Krishna Gaur also came to the site along with a team of the Bhopal Municipal Corporation that carried out the rescue operation.