A 13-year-old girl suffered multiple fractures after a granite slab from a pillar collapsed inside Chandigarh’s Nexus Elante Mall on Monday afternoon.
The freak accident comes just three months after a toy train mishap at the mall that had claimed the life of an 11-year-old boy.
The latest incident took place around 3.30 pm on Monday as Pavitar Dikshit, along with his eight family members and relatives, was visiting the mall to celebrate his daughter’s birthday.
According to Pavitar, the family had gathered near the mall’s pillars after lunch, taking pictures, when a granite slab and cement chunks from a pillar suddenly collapsed, injuring his 13-year-old daughter and sister-in-law.
Pavitar’s daughter Maisha Dikshit suffered a hip bone fracture and rib injuries while her maternal aunt Surbhi Jain suffered head injuries.
Both were immediately rushed to the nearby Eden Hospital in Industrial Area, Phase 1, in an ambulance stationed at the mall. While Maisha remains admitted for her grievous injuries, Surbhi received six stitches on the head.
In his statement to police, Pavitar recounted the horrifying moment when they heard a loud crash and were hit by falling debris. “We were simply standing near the pillars, taking pictures, when suddenly a massive slab of granite and cement started falling on us. It all happened so quickly,” he narrated.
The area where the incident occurred was barricaded by the police shortly after as a precautionary measure to prevent further accidents.
“We are aware of the incident which happened on our premises. Reacting swiftly, our team rushed the customer to the hospital for preliminary treatment and care. We are also cooperating with the authorities in this regard. Internally, we are inspecting the premises and taking due corrective action to ensure such incidents do not happen in the future,” an official statement from the mall read.
While the teenager’s father has filed a police complaint at the Industrial Area police station, police have yet to register an FIR in the matter.
Earlier, on June 22, Shahbaz Singh, an 11-year-old boy from Punjab’s Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar district, had died after a compartment of the toy train he was riding overturned at the same mall.
