Bangla authorities evacuate hotel fearing collapse?

Dhaka: Bangladeshi authorities today evacuated a posh hotel here after a road beside it suffered sudden subsidence resulting in cracks on the walls of the six-storey building.

"By now we have evacuated everyone from the hotel (Sunderban) as cracks developed at several parts of the building. It appears the structure is at risk of collapse," fire service director Shakil Newaz said.

Residents at the neighbourhood said they heard a big sound and later saw a road adjacent to Hotel Sundarban sinking into the earth along with a portion of the facility at the Kathalbagan area in the city.

"It was raining in the morning... We saw a portion of the boundary wall was collapsing and the street beside it subsiding after a big bang," a witness told before a TV camera.

Fire service officials, however, said they found no report of casualty while the piling works on an adjacent plot for a building could have caused the situation as the road and the wall caved in into the huge cavity dug for a commercial twin tower.

Newly elected mayors of Dhaka North and Dhaka South city corporations Annisul Huq and Sayeed Khokon immediately rushed to the scene to gauge the situation and asked authorities to cut off the supply of power, gas and water in the area as part of extra security measure.

"The area has been cleared and no guest is there inside the hotel, we have asked the hotel workers to evacuate as well," Huq told newsmen, adding that the scene of the collapse was on the borders with Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC).