13 die in India hotel collapse

Tragedy struck Hyderabad, capital of the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, on the eve of Ramadan, when a two-story building came crashing down early yesterday morning claiming 13 lives and leaving at least 20 injured, some of them seriously.
The 80-year-old building houses a popular restaurant — City Light Hotel located in the busy Rashtrapathi Road in Secunderabad. A virtual landmark in the city, the hotel is known for the Irani chai (tea), biryani and light snacks, and more importantly, the famous haleem it dishes out during the month of Ramadan.
Most of the dead are believed to be hotel workers and a few daily wage earners and auto-rickshaw drivers who had come for the morning cup of tea.
The building came crashing down at 6.45 a.m, taking all those inside by surprise, and within seconds, all that remained was heap of debris. While some managed to escape, officials believe that at least 10 persons may still be trapped inside. According to one of the rescued hotel workers, there were about 30 workers in the building at the time of the incident.
According to latest reports, personnel of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), police, fire fighting personnel and other rescue workers had managed to evacuate about 45 people, of whom at least 15 were shifted to the government-run Gandhi General Hospital in Secunderabad. The condition of some of the injured was reportedly critical. Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, who visited the site as well as Gandhi Hospital to inquire about the condition of the injured, ordered a probe, besides directing officials to provide immediate relief to the injured.
While the residents in the area alleged that negligence on the part of municipal officials was the cause for the collapse, Krishna Babu, however, maintained that the building was not a dilapidated structure and was also not among 57 buildings in Secunderabad which had been issued demolition notices.
Stating that the building looked stable during inspection, the GHMC official said: "The construction of a 'bhatti' (clay oven) for preparation of 'haleem' on the top floor of the building may have weakened the structure, but the exact reason will be known only after a probe." The municipal commissioner said a case would be filed against the hotel owner.
Meanwhile, main opposition Telugu Desam Party President N Chandrababu Naidu, who also visited the collapse site and Gandhi Hospital, said the tragedy reflected the failure of the Congress government on all fronts. Demanding a judicial inquiry into the collapse as also compensation of Rs one million to the families of the victims, he said the government was responsible for the deaths of so many innocents.