Panipat Gurdwara collapse: Toll up to 5

Two more bodies were found from the debris of a gurudwara which collapsed on National Highway 1 here, taking the toll in the incident to five. NDRF and Haryana Police teams have now called off the rescue operation.

"Two more bodies were pulled out from under the debris last night. With this, the total number of deaths in the incident has risen to five," Karnal Range Inspector General of Police, Subhash Yadav said on Wednesday.

He said the incident site has been cleared and no more bodies were lying under the debris.

"The rescue operation has been called off now," the IG said. Postmortem examination of all the five bodies has been conducted and they were later handed over to their kin, Panipat Civil Hospital's Medical Superintendent Dr Alok Jain said.

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, who yesterday visited the site and reviewed the relief work, had announced an ex gratia of Rs five lakh to the kin of those killed and Rs two lakh to those who sustained grievous injuries and Rs one lakh to those who sustained minor injuries.

The gurudwara, where some construction work was going on, had collapsed on Monday evening. Among those who died in the incident included three labourers and a priest. Nine persons were injured in the incident.

Khattar had ordered a probe by a high-level committee, headed by Panipat Additional Deputy Commissioner Rajiv Mehta, into the incident.

The committee had been asked to submit its report within 15 days.