Dharwad building crash: Death toll mounts to 11

DHARWAD: The operation by NDRF to rescue those trapped in the debris of the building that crashed on Tuesday, continued without relentlessly and by Thursday afternoon, they had rescued two more people, taking the number of people rescued to 61.
By 1.30pm on Thursday, the death toll had risen to 11. The NDRF had retrieved three more dead bodies. While two of the deceased were identified Dakshayani and Divya, another body of a man could not be identified.
Prema Unakal and Dawal Sab who were struck in the debris for more than 30 hours were lucky to survive.They were shifted to the district civil hospital for treatment. This raised the hopes that there could be more survivors under the debris and the rescue team roped in more manpower to speed up the rescue operation.
However, Thursday did not prove to be lucky for the girls and few others who were struck in the debris. The NDRF and SDRF rescue teams which had accorded priority to bring out the survivors had used more manpower and less machinery fearing that it may cause injury to those trapped inside.
But, finding only dead bodies, the rescue teams lost hopes of any survivors in the debris and they started clearing the debris using heavy machineries like earth movers and hydraulic cranes.
The rescue team had taken out the dead bodies of Dakshayani and Divya Unkal and another unidentified person by 1.00 pm.
Divya is the daughter of Prema Unkal, who also was struck in the debris and rescued by the NDRF in the late night operation.
Extreme hot condition at the crash site hindered the rescue operation and made the NDRF team go for use of machinery than the manpower.
Even on the third day after the crash, thousands of people including the relatives and family members of the trapped were waiting anxiously with a faint hope that the team would bring out victims alive.
But their cries rented the air as the dead bodies were being removed one by one and rushed to the district civil hospital for postmortem in ambulance.
As the digging work commenced, dust filled the air causing breathlessness to the rescuers. Hence, water cannons were used to settle the dust.
The volunteers from NGOs helped the rescue team members by supplying them with water bottles, glucose, juice, bananas, grapes and ice-cream candies to boost their energy level and quench the thirst.
Going by the speed of the operation and the possibility of finding the survivors getting dim, the entire operation could end in next two days.
The only thing that remains is to shift the debris and clear the area.