Lucknow, 8 Sept

A three-storey building housing godowns and a motor workshop collapsed in the Transport Nagar area on Saturday, leaving 8 dead and 28 people injured.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will visit Lok Bandhu Hospital to meet those injured in the incident, after returning from Ambedkar Nagar, Director, Information, Shishir said.

Joint Commissioner of Police Amit Verma said there is minimum possibility of someone still being trapped inside.

As the rescue operation continued overnight, teams of National Disaster Response team (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) recovered the bodies of three people, who were identified as Raj Kishore, 27, Rudra Yadav, 24, and Jagrup Singh, 35, Relief Commissioner G S Naveen said.

The eighth body was recovered around 3am on Sunday, officials said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh each for the families of the deceased and Rs 50,000 for those injured in the building collapse at Transport Nagar in Uttar Pradesh's Lucknow on Saturday evening.

"The loss of lives due to a building mishap in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, is saddening. Prayers with those who lost their loved ones. May the injured recover soon," the PM said in a post on X.

Police said the building was constructed around four years ago and some construction work was underway at the time of the incident. Most of the victims were working on the ground floor when the incident occurred at 4:45 pm on Saturday.

The injured have been admitted to various hospitals, including Lok Bandhu Hospital, in the district.

According to the officials, the building had a motor workshop and warehouse on the ground floor, a medical godown on the first floor and a cutlery warehouse on the second floor.

Akash Singh, who worked in the medical godown and was among the injured, said a pillar of the building had developed a crack. -PTI