‘There were visible cracks on the building’ Tenants of collapsed building

A tenant residing in the building that collapsed in Uthiru on Tuesday night has given an account of events leading to the incident.

The tenant who did not wish to be named, said everything happened quickly.

“On Monday, there were clear, visible cracks on the building and we brought it up with our landlady.

We have a WhatsApp group where we sent photos and videos. We had raised concerns on whether the building is safe.” He said.

The tenant said they were assured that it was safe after raising their concerns to the landlord.

The landlord said an engineer had visited the premises to assess it and ascertained that the building was okay.

“She even said she would call the engineer again to check the building.

Yesterday at around 8:00 pm, 8:20 pm there, we heard people screaming so we ran out to see what was happening then we saw the building bending.” he said.

He said he rushed into the house to assist his house help move out his children to safety.

“Some stones fell on my nanny’s head but she is okay and has sought medical attention.

I then, rushed back to pick up a few things when the building started collapsing on top of me.

I am a cyclist and I had put on my helmet to protect me when I went back but by the time I wanted to leave, the slab collapsed on me and I was lying on the floor.”  he said.

He said his helmet and couch saved him as the slab had fallen to about a few centimetres above the ground.

“I was stuck for about 15 minutes but luckily people who were outside guided me using light from torches and I was able to come out of the rabble.

At least my nanny, children and myself are safe but I hope that the authorities will take necessary action and the landlady will be held accountable.”