In a shocking incident, four persons, two women and two children, died and six others were injured as a two-storied house collapsed here in the wee hours on Sunday.
Six pilgrims of Baleswar district had arrived here by the Neelachal Express on Saturday for darshan of the Shree Jagannath. A pilgrim agent put them in this old lodging house at Daita lane of Dolamandapsahi. At about 3 am while they were asleep, the top roof of the house collapsed and razed the ground floor killing the four persons, including two pilgrims, the caretaker of the house and her daughter.
Neighbours called fire tender personnel who conducted rescue operation and sent the injured persons to the District Headquarters Hospital here. Rescue personnel recovered two dead bodies from the debris while the other two other deceased died in the hospital. It was learnt that this dilapidated house is owned by one Sukumar Das Mahapatra and was being used to house pilgrims.
During preliminary investigation, it was found that the house had no mandatory valid registration of the lodging house committee. The police detained the house owner and the pilgrim agent and registered a criminal case and began investigating into the incident. The bodies were sent for post-mortem.
The deceased persons were Sulochana Das (60) of Basta, Baleswar and her daughter Mamuni (5) and house caretaker Ashamani Barik (60) and her daughter Swetlina (12). Puri Additional District Magistrate Udhab Charan Majhi visited the house and the injured persons in the hospital. The Chief Minister announced Rs 1 lakh compensation from his relief fund for each family of the deceased persons while the Government would bear all treatment expenses of the injured.