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Parts of an illegal five-storeyed building to which another floor was being added collapsed on four other houses near Narkeldanga on Tuesday morning, injuring at least four persons.
The illegal building on Canal East Road - whose developers are absconding - had come up around a year ago and work on the new floor had started a week back, residents said.
But the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) apparently had no inkling about the structure till Tuesday.
"The building is illegal and we have lodged an FIR against the developers," said mayor Sovan Chatterjee after the collapse. He added that a "stop work" and "demolition" notice had been served but civic officials admitted that the step was a mere formality.
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"A building cannot be demolished until it is vacant. In most cases, such illegal buildings are home to several families and it is not our job to throw them out or relocate them. We lodge police complaints on the basis of which court cases are later started but the buildings remain," said a senior civic official.
The building at 48 Canal East Road has 40 flats and is home to several families. The 1BHK flats are of 140sq ft and the 3BHK ones are as small as 380sq ft. According to residents of the building, the flats were sold at Rs 2,800 per sq ft.
The building has no water reservoir, barely half-a-metre's gap with the walls of neighbouring buildings, thin outer walls without plaster, no main door and no lights on the staircases - all signs of an illegal construction.
The structure is one of the 2.5 lakh illegal buildings in the city, many of them at Narkeldanga, Tiljala, Topsia, Ekbalpore, Kidderpore, Santoshpur, Jadavpur, Bijoygarh and Rajabazar.
"We know this is an illegal building but what else can you get with Rs 10 lakh in the city. But after the wall collapse, even we are afraid of staying in the building. But we have nowhere to go," said Md. Aslam, one of the residents of the building, who works at a stationery shop in Burrabazar.
Police said parts of the outer wall of the floor under construction collapsed around 5.30am when most residents of the buildings on which the debris fell were asleep.
Bimla Devi, 67, Kamal Nath Rana, 50, Pujan Maji, 10, and Sujan Maji, 12, sustained injuries. They were taken to hospital, from where they were discharged after first-aid.
According to residents, a local promoter, Mohammad Naushad, began developing the plot, on which some workshops stood, last year. After five storeys had been built and people had started moving in, he took on a partner named Alamgir. Several people alleged that Alamgir was constructing the new floor.
"Masons had been working overnight to construct the floor and bricks and stones kept falling on our roofs. On Sunday night, some residents of the area protested against construction at night and the work had stopped. But they resumed the work on Monday night. The masons had left and it was raining when the wall collapsed," said Rajesh Prasad, resident of one of the damaged houses.
His mother Bimla, whose legs are paralysed, was injured when a concrete chunk on her ceiling, loosened by the falling debris, collapsed.
"I was sleeping when the room shook and there were sounds of something heavy falling on our roof. I thought it was an earthquake but could not move because of my condition. Moments later, a concrete chunk from the ceiling fell on my left shoulder joint. I somehow managed to shift my upper body but the chunk still grazed the left side of my head," said Bimla.
In the next house, Kamal Nath Rana had just got up from bed and was plugging in his cellphone charger when the debris crashed through the tiled roof, causing bruises on the back and legs. In the third house, the two children suffered similar injuries when debris fell on their asbestos roof.
Police said the developers have switched off their cellphones and are absconding.
"We alerted the civic authorities, fire brigade and disaster management group and they broke the most dangerous parts of the building. We have barred entry to its roof," said an officer of Narkeldanga police station.
Murga Alauddin and Gopi, identified by police as aides of the developer, were arrested in the afternoon. They were charged under Section 337 of the IPC (causing hurt by an act which endangers human life), which is bailable and carries a maximum punishment of six months in jail.