Kolkata: Five people were killed and 20 others injured after a 32,000 sq ft under-construction warehouse at Taratala came crashing down around 11.30 am on Wednesday, burying around 40 labourers under tonnes of concrete slabs, mangled iron beams, steel and corrugated tin sheets.Nearly 400 personnel drawn from the Army, National Disaster Response Force, State Disaster Response Force, Kolkata Police, fire brigade, civil defence and disaster management units mounted a massive day-long rescue operation. To cut through the mountain of concrete, they deployed sophisticated equipment including angle cutters, diamond chain saws, air plasma cutting machines and cordless hammer drills. Piece by piece, rescuers dismantled the collapsed structure and managed to pull out 25 people from the wreckage. But at least a dozen more workers remained trapped under the debris at the time of going to press.Late on Wednesday, police arrested three persons — site supervisor Syed Mohammad Gulzar and labour suppliers Subhas Chowdhury and Mohammad Ata-Ul.The G+2 warehouse, being built on a 72,000 sq ft Kolkata Port land off Brace Bridge, was taken on lease for 30 years by an Odisha-based businessman, Sambhu Behera. It was meant to house a tea godown, a battery repository and a cold storage facility.Preliminary findings by KMC engineers suggested a flaw in the building design. Kolkata Police sources said the detective department has taken over the probe. Police Commissioner Ajay Nand, who was at the site, said: “At present, we are focused on the rescue operation. During the probe, we will check if building rules were flouted.”Construction workers at the site said casting of concrete slab continued even after iron beams at the first-floor level were found to have bent, probably under the weight of the slab.Owner Behera, who has an office in New Alipore, told TOI that work on the plot began after KMC sanctioned the plan on Jan 17, 2026. He claimed he had engaged Ayaan Traders to construct the warehouse which, in turn, appointed a subcontractor, Kamal Samanta, who deployed most of the labourers.“I obtained all clearances from KMC and Port authorities. If anyone is at fault, it is the contractor,” he claimed. The contractor, Ayaan Traders owner Azgar Hossain, was inside the warehouse at the time of the collapse and was untraceable till late Wednesday. Hossain is known to be a Trinamool Congress strongman and close associate of Kolkata Port MLA and former mayor Firhad Hakim.CM Suvendu Adhikari, who visited the site, also referred to the “design flaw”. “From what I saw, the collapse was not caused by heavy rain or soft soil. If that had been the case, the collapse would have looked different. There was bending. The structure appears to have slipped and overturned from the joints. That is what I observed. KMC will give me a report tonight, and I will place it in the Assembly,” he said.Adhikari later visited the injured workers in hospital and said he has asked police to speed up the investigation. A compensation package for the dead and injured will be announced by the govt on Thursday.
