Firemen and local residents look through the heap of rubble after a building collapses in Puri on Sunday. Picture by Sarat Patra

Puri/Balasore, Sept. 8: Six persons, including two children, were killed in two separate incidents of buildings collapsing in Puri and Jaleswar.

The state government has announced ex-gratia payment of Rs 1 lakh to the families of each of the deceased.

In Puri, two women and two minors were killed when a two-storey lodge collapsed in the early hours at Daita lane of Dolamandap Sahi, less than 200 metres from the Jagannath temple. Six were injured and they have been admitted to Puri hospital.

Sources said that the building was 100 years old.

“We were sleeping when the building collapsed,” said Brajay Das, one of the survivors, who is from Balasore district. At least 10 people were in the lodge when the accident happened. The deceased have been identified as Sulochana Das, 75, and Nikita Das, 4, of Balasore. Among the dead are caretaker of the building, Bauri Barik, 75, and her granddaughter Swetaswini Barik, 12.

Though the reason behind the collapse is yet to be ascertained, it is being surmised that intermittent rain in the city yesterday might have brought the old structure down. Puri additional district magistrate Uddhab Charan Majhi said: “The building was being used as a private lodge without the requisite permission.”

The state government today asked the Puri district administration to conduct a survey of unsafe buildings in the town. Housing and urban development minister Debi Prasad Mishra said: “We will put up signboards and request people not to stay in unsafe buildings.”

In the other incident, which took place around 9.30am, two of a family in Jaleswar were killed when the cowshed they were in caved in. The victims are Shantilata Nandi, 34, and Sasmita Nandi, 30, of Ekatli village.