Ghaziabad, July 23: The injured labourers who were rescued from the rubble of the Ghaziabad building collapse on Sunday revealed that the builder had forced them to carry on with the daily schedule despite a visible crack appearing in the building. A total of two people have been killed and nearly nine have been rescued from the site. According to a tweet by ANI, one of the injured labourers said that a crack had appeared in one of the building columns early in the morning and that the matter was reported to the builder, who then asked to fill the crack with cement.

"He told us to fill the crack with cement and forced us to continue. We were working on the upper floor, the column on the ground floor must have collapsed on the ground floor," the injured woman said.

According to a report by Indian Express, a family had spotted cracks earlier on Sunday, hours before the five-storey building collapsed. Geeta Aharwaal (25) had noticed cracks on the columns of the under-construction building, where she lived with nine family members and had raised an alarm. The report further informs that the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) rescued eight people, including two children and the six-year-old boy was missing.

Police informed that four persons have been identified and will be taken into custody shortly. "According to documents, this land belonged to a builder. We have identified four persons related to that and are in the process of taking them into custody. We will file an FIR and take the harshest action against culprits”, Meerut Inspector General, Ram Kumar told ANI.

Ghaziabad District Magistrate said an inquiry has been ordered to find out the reason for the collapse. Ghaziabad DM Ritu Maheshwari further informed that that Prima facie, there seem to be issues with the quality of the building. The Ghaziabad DM and SSP were ordered by Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath to visit the site and take stock of the situation and to assist in rescue operations.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 23, 2018 02:55 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).