17 killed as wall collapses in TN village following rains

In a major rain-related incident in Tamil Nadu, at least 17 people, including ten women and two children, were killed in their sleep when a wall came down crashing on a row of houses at a village near here on Monday, police said. A portion of the 15-foot high private compound wall, damp due to heavy rains lashing the area for the past few days, fell on the adjoining tiled-roof houses in Nadur village, over 50 km from here, around 5 am, burying alive the inmates.

Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit and Chief Minister K Palaniswami mourned the deaths. Several parts of the state have been lashed by incessant north east monsoon rains for the past few days.

Fire and Rescue services personnel with the assistance of locals and police retrieved the bodies from the debris. In Chennai, Chief Minister K Palaniswami condoled the deaths and announced a relief of Rs 4 lakh each to the bereaved families from the State Disaster Relief Fund.

Purohit expressed shock and grief over the incident. "I convey my deep condolences to the bereaved members of the families," he said in a message.

Coimbatore district collector K Rajamani and Superintendent of Police Sujit Kumar visited the spot. Rajamani told reporters that the villagers informed him about the issue over the construction of the compound wall.

If found illegal, the wall would be demolished, he said. The district administration will review suggestions by the villagers to prevent such incidents in future and will send a detailed report to the state government for follow up action, including providing relief measures, he added.

He also said facilities at the Mettupalayam government hospital would be upgraded to ensure locals did not need to travel to the district headquarters here. Meanwhile, villagers at Nadur demanded immediate arrest of the owner of the land, where the wall was constructed.

They also put forth various demands including increase in the solatium from Rs 4 lakh announced by the state government to Rs.25 lakh during a meeting convened by the Collector. Earlier, about 500 local people staged a sit-in on the Mettupalayam-Ooty road, seeking the arrest of the land owner, disrupting traffic for nearly an hour.

Later in the day too, protests were held, reportedly by the relatives of the victims, at the local government hospital where the post-mortem of the bodies was held. TV visuals showed some policemen purportedly shoving and assaulting a few protesters..