Portions of two abandoned houses in Bowbazar and Bhowanipore collapsed on Wednesday. Police said no one was trapped or injured.
A part of the roof and the boundary wall of a two-storey, dilapidated house on Debendra Ghosh Road in Bhowanipore in south Kolkata collapsed around 2.30pm.
Three hours earlier, a portion of the roof of an old three-storey building in Gopal Chandra Lane in Bowbazar in central Kolkata had collapsed.
The police said portions of the house in Bhowanipore -- opposite Jadu Babu’s Bazar, behind India Club -- collapsed when the rain nearly stopped.
Covered with trees and shrubs, the concrete boundary wall of the building did not appear weak from outside.
Personnel from the Disaster Management Group (DMG) posted in Bhowanipore rushed to the spot and cordoned off the area before launching a clean-up drive using shovels and crow-bars.
“Since this was an abandoned building, no one was inside when a portion of the building’s roof collapsed,” said an officer leading the DMG team.
The entire operation at Bhowanipore and Bowbazar was monitored by senior police officers, who were keeping a close watch on the city throughout Tuesday night and Wednesday from the Unified Command Centre at Lalbazar.
Officers said the Bowbazar building had been declared unsafe long back by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation. That house was abandoned, too.
Around 11.30am, a portion of the roof caved in, sparking panic among residents of the locality. Eyewitnesses alerted Bowbazar police station and a message was sent to the police control room at Lalbazar, too.
Within a few minutes, a DMG team reached the site and cordoned off the area to start clean-up operations.
“No one was injured,” a senior police officer said.