Bankura, Nov. 22: Five persons — two women and three children — were killed when a stack of bricks at a brick kiln collapsed on them at a Bankura village last night.

Brick-kiln workers Menoka Khisku, 28, and Sumitra Tudu, were cooking dinner sitting beside the stack of bricks. Menoka’s three children, Binanda, 10, Dhananjoy, 8, and Kakoli, 4, were with them.

Around 8pm, the bricks collapsed, crushing the five beneath them. Bankura police chief Pranab Kumar said: “Since the stack was not a permanent structure, no cement had been used to hold the bricks together.”