Collapse of Wellawatte building: Search operations likely to be called off

The Army will call off the rescue operations at the site of the collapsed building in Wellawatte, because there is no sign of anyone trapped under the rubble, Army Spokesman Roshan Seneviratne said today.

“This is a private land. There is no evidence of further victims trapped under the rubble. We will inform the owner to continue with the rest of the work, as there was no need to deploy our personnel any further,” he said.

But Wellawatte Fire Brigade Section Officer Aruna De Silva said their personnel were continuing search operations based on information received from the workers at the site at the time the building collapsed that there were still two of their co-workers missing.

Meanwhile, the Police and the Special Task Force (STF) media said their officers they too would continue search operations.

A 31-year-old man identified as Udaya Kumara Ratnayake, a resident of Hasalaka had died while 22 others were injured in this tragedy.

Nineteen of those injured are still in hospital.

Police believe that proper quality standards had not been maintained when adding more floors to the structure, which could have resulted in the building collapsing. (Thilanka Kanakarathna)