Lucknow:

The death count in the building collapse in Lucknow climbed to eight with rescuers pulling out three more bodies from the debris, officials said on Sunday.

Twenty-eight people were injured when the three-storey building housing godowns and a motor workshop collapsed in the Transport Nagar area here on Saturday evening.

The State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) recovered the bodies of three people, who were identified as Raj Kishore (27), Rudra Yadav (24) and Jagrup Singh (35), during the rescue operation, Relief Commissioner G S Naveen said.

The operation is still underway.

A senior district administration official said they are now focusing on ensuring that no one else is trapped under the rubble.

Police said the building was constructed around four years ago and some construction work was underway at the time of the incident. Most of the victims were working on the ground floor when the incident occurred at 4:45 pm on Saturday.

The injured have been admitted to various hospitals, including Lok Bandhu Hospital, in the district.

According to the officials, the building had a motor workshop and warehouse on the ground floor, a medical godown on the first floor and a cutlery warehouse on the second floor.

Akash Singh, who worked in the medical godown and was among the injured, said a pillar of the building had developed a crack.

“We had come down to the ground floor because it was raining. We noticed that a pillar of the building had developed a crack. Suddenly, the entire building collapsed on us,” he said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Lucknow:

A man allegedly strangled his wife and two children and kept them inside the house for almost two days, police on Sunday said.

Police arrested Ramlagan Gautam on Sunday on charges of killing his wife Jyoti, 30, and children Payal and Anand, aged six and three.

DCP (South) Tej Swaroop Singh told reporters that Ramlagan Gautam, a native of Balrampur district, lived in a rented house in an area under the Bijnaur Police Station jurisdiction.

He said the murders were detected Sunday afternoon, when the house’s owner, one Dhirendra Kumar, who lived nearby, visited it.

“There was a foul smell emanating from the house. The landlord immediately went outside Ramlagan’s room on the first floor. When he peeped inside through a window, he saw Jyoti’s body lying on the ground. He immediately informed the police,” said Singh.

According to a preliminary investigation, Gautam killed his wife and children on the intervening night of Thursday and Friday, he said.

Police have sent the bodies for post mortem examination. They are yet to ascertain the motive behind the killings.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)