Lucknow: More than 30 people were left trapped under the rubble of a cold storage whose under-construction roof fell on Friday in the Daurala neighbourhood of Meerut district, killing at least seven people.
Senior administrative and law enforcement officials, including Meerut Divisional Commissioner Selva Kumari J, IG Praveen Kumar, SSP Rohit Singh, and a squad from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), arrived on the scene to conduct rescue operations, according to local police sources, New Indian Express reported.
According to the police sources, up until the evening, about 26 people had been rescued from the rubble, and attempts were being made to find the rest. Four people were reportedly critical.
Chandra Veer Singh, a former BSP MLA, owned the cold storage. According to reports, the refrigerator's cylinder exploded on Friday afternoon while about 40 workers were at work, leaking ammonia gas. The blast caused the lintel's shuttering to fall, which caused the roof to collapse.