A 150-year-old government public school building in Hyderabad's Sultan Bazar has collapsed as it was affected with incessant rain over the last few days. No casualties have been reported as the students were not present owing to shut down in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic.
According to officials of GHMC no one was injured in the mishap.
In the mishap, the roof of the building and iron shed collapsed, some furniture was also damaged as a result. Thanks to the lock down, casualties were averted.
School staff believe that the already dilapidated building structure was affected due to the rain. Teachers said that the building was not repaired for the last 13 years because of the restrictions of the department of archaeology .
According to local media reports, the school management and government authorities have neglected the maintenance of the school despite concerns raised by locals for several years.
The school was set up in 1856 and the former President of India, Zakir Hussain, is said to have done his primary education from the school. Earlier the school used to have Kannada, Telugu and Urdu media of instruction but for a couple of years now, the school is teaching only in Telugu medium.
Given the possibility of heavy rains in the parts of the city, the GHMC and disaster response force teams were alerted. According to the IMD, on Thursday, Hyderabad will receive moderate rain accompanied by cloudy sky and on Friday, there will be cloudy sky with one or two spells of rain or thunderstorms.
Earlier on Thursday, in a tragic incident reported from Mahabubnagar of Telangana a family of three including a woman and her two children were killed after their dilapidated house collapsed on them due to heavy rains.
The deceased were identified as Sharanamma and her daughters Vaishali (14) and Bhavani (12) who are residents of Pagidyala village in Gandeed mandal of Mahabubnagar district of Telangana.
