Building collapse: Tamil Nadu government sets up inquiry panel, toll rises to 60

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government today set up an inquiry commission to probe the collapse of a 11-storey under-construction residential building here in which the death toll has shot up to 60.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa announced the one-man commission headed by Justice (Retd) R Reghupathy will probe the circumstances leading to the collapse of the building.

"The Commission will find out whose ignorant attitude resulted in such a mishap that left many workers dead and others injured and decide on (fixing) those responsible for it," she said.

"As of now, 60 are dead and out of this 40 are men and 20 women," K Kulandaisamy, Director, Public Health told PTI.

Stating that still there was a good "probability" of survivors, the official said "past experience in such situations elsewhere suggests the probability of survivors," though today is the sixth day of rescue work.

On the number of persons feared to be still trapped, he declined to specify and reiterated that the authorities were hopeful of pulling out all those trapped alive.

"We hope that the rescue work will be fully completed by evening tomorrow," DIG, National Disaster Response Force, S P Selvan said.

27 persons, including eight women, were rescued alive till July one after the June 28 mishap at Porur.

A revenue official engaged in rescue work indicated that "it is feared that there could still be 20-25 more persons trapped in the debris."