Two killed, two injured as closed cinema collapses in Howrah

Kolkata: Two persons were killed with two left injured when a portion of a closed cinema collapsed at a busy market area in Howrah.

The incident took place late on Sunday night, when the work to bring down a large portion of the century-old building was going on.

The cinema hall was closed a few years ago. Now, a decision has been taken to pull down the entire cinema hall and to construct a shopping mall in the same place. The construction work to build the shopping mall will initiate soon. So, the work to pull down the existing structure has been started a few days ago.

Some daily wage labourers were working to pull down the structure, when the incident took place. Some of the workers were standing on a portion of the second floor of the building.

A portion of the second floor collapsed all of a sudden and it fell on the workers who were working on the first floor.

People, who were present in the locality, started crying for help to bring out the workers from under the debris. Police went to the spot and officers of the Disaster Management Group also helped in bringing the workers out of the debris.

They were taken to Howrah Hospital, where two were declared brought dead and two others were provided with necessary treatment.

Police said that Minarul Islam (37) and Shamim Hossain (28) were declared brought dead when taken to the hospital, while Rafiqul Islam and Julmarg Sheikh are undergoing treatment.

The bodies have been sent for autopsy and the police have initiated a probe in this connection. They have come to know that Minarul and Shamim were residents of Murshidabad. The victims' family members have been informed.

The police have cordoned off the place and initially allowed no one to enter the place of occurrence. Though they ruled out the possibility of any foul play behind the incident, the investigating officers will speak to the people who witnessed the incident.