An apartment building collapsed in south Kolkata’s Bagha Jatin area on Tuesday while work was underway to strengthen its foundation, officials said.

The incident happened around 1.30 pm in Kolkata Municipal Corporation’s ward 99 near the SC Mallick Road, they said. No one was injured in the incident as the four-storied building was vacated, they added.

A Haryana-based firm was given the contract by the developer to strengthen the foundation as the 10-year-old building had tilted to the right over time, an official of the KMC said.

For the works, the residents were shifted to another building in the area, he said.

However, the KMC was not informed about it, the official said.The entire building is likely to be razed now, he said.

A case has been lodged against the developer who is now on the run, police said. Jadavpur MLA Debabrata Majumdar said the work

was started by the developer without any authorisation and strict action will be taken against him.

In March last year, 13 people were killed after an under-construction building collapsed in the Garden Reach area of the city. The owner of one of the flats in the collapsed building alleged that an additional floor was added illegally and low-quality materials were used in the construction.

“We had not dared to protest as they are powerful people with political patronage. Now, what will happen to us? We had spent all our savings to buy this flat,” the woman said.