12 Kolkata: A 17-year-old youth was killed after being trapped under the debris of his three-storey home in Baguiati which was made of wood and bamboo beams and lacked an iron framework. It collapsed following a spell of continuous rain on Thursday night.
Police said the house, built around 15 years ago by the father of the deceased, had weakened over a period of time.
Dhrubajyoti Mandal had passed class XII from a Baguiati school and was about to head to Bengaluru to get admission at an industrial training institute.
The boy was alone while his mother and elder brother were away looking for a rented home after portions of the building had started crumbling over the last two days.
Police said the incident happened around 9.45 pm when Dhrubajyoti was at the ground floor. Locals said first the roof crashed and then the other floors, leaving the Aswininagar locality in a haze of dust even as it was raining.
“My brother had called me asking me to come back as the roof had crashed. He said he was trapped under the debris. We rushed back and tried to get inside but it was not possible. By the time he could be pulled out, he was dead,” said Kaushik, Dhrubajyoti’s brother. Cops and fire brigade reached the site around 10 pm.
“ We will raze the dangerous portions of the building and help the family,” said councillor Indranath Bagui.