Umerkote (Nabarangpur): In a tragic incident, a four-year-old girl lost her life and two other minors were injured after a wall of an abandoned house collapsed in Kamabandha village under Bakadabeda Panchayat of Jharigaon block in Nabarangpur district on Thursday afternoon.
According to reports, three little girls from the village—Yamuna (4), Damayanti, and Jyoti—were playing on the village road when they sat on the veranda of an abandoned house located beside the road. Suddenly, a weakened wall of the structure gave way and collapsed on the children, burying them under debris.
Hearing the screams, villagers rushed to the spot and managed to pull the girls out from under the rubble. An ambulance was called immediately. However, as Yamuna’s condition was critical, villagers did not wait and rushed her to Umerkote hospital on a motorcycle.
Doctors at the hospital declared Yamuna brought dead. The other two girls were admitted for treatment. Damayanti sustained a fracture in her leg, while Jyoti escaped with minor injuries. Hospital sources later confirmed that both Damayanti and Jyoti are now out of danger.
The incident has left the village in deep shock. Villagers alleged that Yamuna might have survived had the ambulance arrived on time, pointing to delays in emergency response services.
Locals further stated that the abandoned house had been in a dilapidated condition for a long time and had become structurally weak due to continuous rainfall in recent days. They alleged that no preventive action was taken despite the risk posed by the unsafe structure.
The incident has once again raised concerns over unattended dilapidated buildings in rural areas and the need for timely identification and demolition of unsafe structures to prevent such tragedies.
