Couple dies in wall collapse triggered by heavy rain in Dadri
The boundary wall of a plot fell onto one of the adjacent shanties in Ambedkar Nagar in Dadri on Wednesday night
A 62-year-old man and his 50-year-old wife died after a nearby wall collapsed onto their shanty in Ambedkar Nagar colony in Greater Noida’s Dadri on Wednesday night, police officers said Thursday, adding that the collapse is suspected to have been triggered by heavy rain in the district on Wednesday.
Police received information about the incident around 11.45pm on Wednesday, prompting a team from Dadri police station to rush to Ambedkar Nagar colony.
“The boundary wall of a plot fell onto one of the adjacent shanties. The couple, identified as Sabur Ali (62) and his wife Ameen (50), both natives of Dhubri, Assam, were buried under the debris. One of the locals dialled police emergency helpline number 112 following which police reached the spot. Our teams immediately rescued the couple from under the debris and with the help of locals, rushed them to a hospital,” said Ashok Kumar, additional deputy commissioner of police, Greater Noida.
The hospital authorities declared the couple dead on arrival, police said, adding that their family members back in Assam have been intimated.
“During the investigation, it came to fore that within Ambedkar Nagar colony, there is a locality called Tirupati Enclave where there are some empty plots. Some plot owners have constructed boundary walls around their plots, and along these walls, the homeless have built small shanties. The wall that collapsed was about eight feet high but was not very strong. Due to the heavy rainfall on Wednesday, the base of the wall likely weakened, leading to the incident,” Kumar said.
The deceased man worked as a garbage picker, and the couple was sleeping when the incident occurred, police said.
“Locals told police that the couple had been living in Dadri for the past 20 years, and did not have any children. Ali used to earn a livelihood by selling garbage while his wife used to remain ill but used to accompany her husband sometimes. Further investigation is ongoing, and no complaint has been received in the matter so far,” the officer said.
Mahmood, a local who helped in the rescue, said, “It had been constantly raining since Wednesday evening and I was sitting outside my shanty when around 11.45 pm, I saw the wall collapse on Subur Ali’s shanty. I raised the alarm to wake up everyone else and we rushed to remove the bricks. Someone called the police who came in the next 10 minutes and the couple was rescued. However, it was too late and the two were not breathing.”