Panic gripped Dhaka residents when a seven-story building tilted at a slum where another apartment block collapsed this week, killing at least 25 people, police said yesterday.
Sub-inspector Alamgir Hossain said scores of residents were evacuated after cracks were seen in the building at Dhaka’s Begunbari slum, where the four-story apartment building toppled onto shanty dwellings late on Tuesday.
“The building tilted late Friday, creating panic. We have evacuated the residents and are trying to persuade neighbors to leave their houses as the building may collapse,” Alamgir said.
He said the building’s owner had been arrested as he had flouted construction laws by erecting another floor on top of the permitted six stories.
“The city development authority has decided to demolish the building,” the police officer said.
On Tuesday night, the four-story building first tilted and then collapsed within minutes, killing at least 25 people as it crushed tin-roofed slum dwellings below.
Police said the building was raised on columns on swampy ground without approval from housing authorities.
Building collapses are common in the Bangladeshi capital, where construction laws are seldom enforced. In one of the worst such incidents, at least 70 people were killed when a garment factory collapsed outside Dhaka in 2005.
The city suffered another disaster this week when a fire ripped through a densely populated area, killing at least 117 people.
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