2 killed as Ctg flyover girders collapse

Three concrete girders collapse on the road at Bahaddarhat in Chittagong city on Saturday.

At least two people died as three concrete girders of an under-construction flyover collapsed partly on a kitchen market at Bahaddarhat Chittagong city Saturday evening.

Police said at least 15 more people got trapped when the accident took place around 8:00pm, reports our Chittagong correspondent.

Ten of them were rescued and sent to Chittagong Medical College Hospital, said Zahirul Islam, a sub-inspector of an outpost at the hospital.

Rescue operations remain suspended as around 5,000 agitating people staged a demonstration, blocked fire fighting units from reaching the spot and vandalised two fire service vehicles, said Ruhul Amin, deputy director of the Fire Service and Civil Defence.

The demonstrators also vandalised Bahaddarhat police outpost and torched around five motorcycles of police and the makeshift camps of the construction workers of the flyover.

Army personnel and additional police forces have been deployed in the area to avert any untoward incident. The law enforcers lobbed at least 30 rounds of tear shells to disperse the agitators.

The identities of the deceased were not available immediately.

Earlier on June 29, another concrete girder of the flyover collapsed on the road below, slightly injuring a rickshaw-puller.

The Chittagong Development Authority was constructing the flyover at a cost of Tk 106 crore. The construction work of the four-lane flyover began in December, 2010. The length of the flyover is 1,331.60 metres and it is 14 metres wide, said sources in the Chittagong Development Authority.

Source: The Daily Star