Water Tank Collapse in Gurugram Shanties Kills Two Children, Injures Mothers

Two children, including a four-year-old girl, were killed when a cement water tank collapsed in a shanty settlement near the G-21 Society in Gurugram's Sector 83, police said on Sunday. Their mothers, who were bathing them at the time, were injured in the incident.

The tank, roughly 10 feet long, 5 feet wide and 5 feet high, had been constructed in the shanty area only three or four days earlier to store water. It was completed on September 25, filled with water, and residents were told they could begin using it.

According to the police, Rubina Bibi had gone to the tank to bathe her four-year-old daughter, Sumaiya, when another woman arrived with her young son for the same purpose. The wall of the tank suddenly gave way, bringing the structure down on the two children and the women.

Residents cleared the debris and pulled the injured out. Both children were taken to a hospital, where doctors declared them dead.

Rubina's husband, Sharif Ali, a mason from Malda in West Bengal, has lived in a rented shanty in Sector 83 for about a year. Rubina works in housekeeping at a nearby housing society.

A complaint has been registered against the contractor responsible for building the tank under Section 106 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita at the Kherki Daula police station, and an investigation is under way. A senior police officer said an FIR had been lodged, the children's bodies were handed over to their families after postmortem, and the accused contractor would be arrested soon.