GHAZIABAD: Twenty-three people, most of whom were attending a funeral, died and 15 others were injured when the roof of a shelter in a cremation ground in Uttar Pradeshis Muradnagar it collapsed Sunday, police said.
Several people had taken refuge under the newly built structure while it was raining. The dead, all of them men, were mostly relatives or neighbors of Jai Ram, who was being cremated at the time, authorities said.
Rescue teams searched the building’s rubble for hours to make sure no more victims were trapped there.
Local people were the first to arrive at the cremation ground in the Ukhlarsi village of Muradnagar in the Ghaziabad district, adjacent to the national capital.
Police followed by a unit from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) also arrived at the scene, pulling the dead and wounded out of the rubble.
Apart from the 23 dead, another 15 were admitted to different hospitals, Ghaziabad Police Superintendent (Rural) Iraj Raja said.
At least 18 of them had been identified overnight. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh and Uttar Pradesh Prime Minister Yogi Adityanath expressed their regret at the deaths.
“I express my condolences to the near and dear ones of those who lost their lives in this accident, and I also hope a speedy recovery for the injured,” Modi tweeted in Hindi.
Several people had taken refuge under the newly built structure while it was raining. The dead, all of them men, were mostly relatives or neighbors of Jai Ram, who was being cremated at the time, authorities said.
Rescue teams searched the building’s rubble for hours to make sure no more victims were trapped there.
Local people were the first to arrive at the cremation ground in the Ukhlarsi village of Muradnagar in the Ghaziabad district, adjacent to the national capital.
Police followed by a unit from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) also arrived at the scene, pulling the dead and wounded out of the rubble.
Apart from the 23 dead, another 15 were admitted to different hospitals, Ghaziabad Police Superintendent (Rural) Iraj Raja said.
At least 18 of them had been identified overnight. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh and Uttar Pradesh Prime Minister Yogi Adityanath expressed their regret at the deaths.
“I express my condolences to the near and dear ones of those who lost their lives in this accident, and I also hope a speedy recovery for the injured,” Modi tweeted in Hindi.
उत्तर प्रदेश के मुरादनगर में हुए दुर्भाग्यपूर्ण हादसे की खबर से अत्यंत दुख पहुंचा है। राज्य सरकार राहत और बचाव का… https://t.co/oZ05qamQYh
– Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) 1609677390000
Adityanath announced Rs 2 lakh as financial aid for the families of each murdered man.
The prime minister also ordered the Meerut division commissioner and the additional director general of the police zone to submit a report on the incident.
Union Minister VK Singh, who is a member of the Ghaziabad Parliament, and several senior officials from the police and administration visited the crash site.
Uttar Pradesh Health Minister Atul Garg, who is the local BJP MLA, met with some of the injured at the government hospital here.
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