As it happened: Four seriously injured as ceiling collapse in Bhopal hospital

7.20pm It was a two-storey building. 7.00pm Upendra Jain, IGP, Bhopal range to CNN-IBN “There were definitely 14 inmates inside when the collapse happened. Assuming that there 8-9 attendants to help them, there should be 20-25 people inside the ward. Out of these, 15-16 have already been rescued and four among then are serious. Fortunately, none of these is a casualty. The efforts are going on in a war footing to rescue the rest,” Jain said. “The ward was on the first floor. The ground floor was vacant as some repairing work was going on,” he said. On being asked about complete evacuation on the fear that rest of the building might give away, Jain said, “There is no immediate fear of the other part of the hospital falling down so we are concentrating on the rescue operations only.” The police official also said that there is no dearth of equipment Bhopal being the capital city of the state. 6.45pm VK Nikosae, ambulance counter in-charge, Kasturba Gandhi Hospital to CNN-IBN “It was not the surgical ward. It was a female ward. No serious patients were inside the ward when the incident happened. It is a 26-bed ward. Around 17-18 patients were inside when the ceiling gave away. The incident happened at around 5.30pm.” 6.15pm Many people are feared trapped under debris at Bhopal’s Kasturba Gandhi Hospital as a ceiling in the surgical ward collapsed injuring 16 people. The 350-bed hospital is located within the Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited township and is run by the public sector enterprise. “Five people were trapped initially. Four people have already been rescued. One child is feared trapped. There has been no casualty so far. The rescue operation is on,” Upendra Jain, IGP, Bhopal range told CNN-IBN.[caption id=“attachment_731543” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. PTI[/caption] However, the hospital staff are saying that 15 people were trapped inside and rescued later. They have not ruled out any possibility of casualty. “The building is a old one and that might be the cause of collapse. A clear picture will emerge after the rescue operations are over,” Jain said. Heavy machinery like cranes, excavator and rescue teams are at the spot to carry on with the rescue effort. Some of the patients have been shifted to other facilities in the Madhya Pradesh capital. Kasturba Gandhi Hospital provides free treatment to BHEL employees and to those who are not associated with BHEL. Till ten years ago, the hospital was one of the high profile hospitals in Bhopal.