3 killed in Sylhet stadium wall collapse

Three people including two siblings were killed as rain-soaked boundary wall of Sylhet Cricket Stadium collapsed inside Lakatura Tea Garden, on the outskirts of the city, early today.

The deceased are Nasima Akhtar, 17, and Zahed, 11, children of tea garden worker Azan Ali; and Ruhul, 11, nephew of Azan. 

Zahed was a class V student of local Baluchar Primary School, reports our Sylhet correspondent.

All the victims were sleeping in their tin-shed room when the wall crumbled down on them around 3:00am after heavy rains that started last night.

“All on a sudden, we felt something fell on us. Somehow, we managed to go out of the rubble but Nasima and Zahed could not,” Azan said.

Hearing screams, locals rushed to the spot and recovered the bodies of two while firefighters recovered the third body at about 4:30am, Md Shahidur Rahman, assistant director of the Fire Service and Civil Defence, Sylhet, told The Daily Star.

The bodies were handed over to the police, who sent those to Osmani Medical College Hospital morgue for autopsy.

Ruhul, son of Kutub Uddin, a worker of a tea garden in Srimangal, was making a short trip at his uncle Azan’s house. 

Confirming the wall collapse, Manager of Lakatura Tea Garden Syed Mahmud Hassan expressed his apprehension that further collapse may take place any time as the rest part of the boundary is in poor state.

The authority should take immediate measures to repair the wall, he added.

Demanding compensation for the victims’ families, hundreds of tea garment workers staged a one-hour demonstration on the airport road around 8:30am.