NEW DELHI: A building under construction collapsed Wednesday in northern India killing at least four laborers, an administrative official said, in the latest deadly accident to highlight shoddy construction standards in the country.
Workers were placing a concrete slab on the top floor of the seven-story residential building in Uttar Pradesh state’s Kanpur district when it came crashing down.
“Four laborers have been killed in the collapse and 17 have been rushed to a hospital with injuries,” the area’s top administrative official, Kaushal Raj, told AFP.
Raj said the rescue operation would continue overnight “since there are some 30 more who are feared trapped under the debris.”
Television footage showed earth-moving machines and soldiers using bare hands and mechanical diggers to remove mangled slabs of concrete and steel as rescuers in yellow hard hats rushed to the spot with stretchers.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh took to Twitter to offer his condolences. “I pray for the speedy recovery of the injured,” Singh said.
The accident is the latest in a long line of deadly building collapses in India.
In December, nine people died when a building came down in southern India while under construction.
A massive influx of people to cities in search of jobs and a shortage of cheap housing have fueled the construction of illegal buildings across the country, often with sub-standard material. Millions also live in dilapidated old buildings, many of which cave in during heavy rains.
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4 dead in Indian building collapse
4 dead in Indian building collapse
Carney denies claim he walked back Davos speech in Trump call
- Carney’s speech last week in Davos urged middle powers to break their reliance on US economic influence
- Trump told Carney to watch his words as “Canada lives because of the United States”
TORONTO: Prime Minister Mark Carney on Tuesday denied a claim that he walked back his speech at the World Economic Forum denouncing US global leadership in a subsequent call with President Donald Trump.
Carney’s speech last week in Davos, which captured global attention, said the rules-based international order led by the United States for decades was enduring a “rupture” and urged middle powers to break their reliance on US economic influence, which Washington was partly using as “coercion.”
The speech angered Trump, who told Carney to watch his words as “Canada lives because of the United States.”
Speaking to Fox News on Monday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said: “I was in the Oval with the president today. He spoke to Prime Minister Carney, who was very aggressively walking back some of the very unfortunate remarks he made at Davos.”
Carney told reporters in Ottawa on Tuesday that Bessent was incorrect.
“To be absolutely clear, and I said this to the president, I meant what I said in Davos,” he said.
Carney reiterated that Canada “was the first country to understand the change in US trade policy that (Trump) had initiated, and we’re responding to that.”
Carney told reporters that Trump initiated the Monday call, which touched on issues ranging from Arctic security, Ukraine and Venezuela.
Carney’s speech last week in Davos, which captured global attention, said the rules-based international order led by the United States for decades was enduring a “rupture” and urged middle powers to break their reliance on US economic influence, which Washington was partly using as “coercion.”
The speech angered Trump, who told Carney to watch his words as “Canada lives because of the United States.”
Speaking to Fox News on Monday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said: “I was in the Oval with the president today. He spoke to Prime Minister Carney, who was very aggressively walking back some of the very unfortunate remarks he made at Davos.”
Carney told reporters in Ottawa on Tuesday that Bessent was incorrect.
“To be absolutely clear, and I said this to the president, I meant what I said in Davos,” he said.
Carney reiterated that Canada “was the first country to understand the change in US trade policy that (Trump) had initiated, and we’re responding to that.”
Carney told reporters that Trump initiated the Monday call, which touched on issues ranging from Arctic security, Ukraine and Venezuela.
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