One labourer was killed while 13 others suffered injuries when the ceiling of a building, which was under construction, came crashing down on Sunday morning.

This follows merely a month after the City Shopping Centre in the New Industrial Township (NIT) Phase-I collapsed, claiming six lives.

The incident was reported at 11 am at the MALCO Steel and Wire Industry in Sector 24 here. The 116-feet long and 26-feet high ground-floor ceiling was under construction when it came crashing down. There were 35 workers on the roof while 12 others were on the ground floor at the time of the mishap.

The injured were rescued from under the debris and rushed to B K Hospital here. One of the labourers, identified as Shree, the last one to be rescued from the site, succumbed to his injuries on his way to the hospital.

The owner of the building, Jagdeep Ratra, who was present at the site while rescue operations were on, said: “The accident is not due to negligence on my part. The construction work was handed to a contractor, one Ram Sahai.”

Sources present at the site said the construction work was being carried out with certain deviations from the original sanctioned plan. Muncipal Commissioner of Faridabad C R Rana said: “The plan was approved eight months ago by the municipal corporation but the construction work had started recently. It is the responsibility of the owner, site engineer and/or the architect to ensure the safety at the construction site.”

The rescue operations were almost over by evening. Fire and police officials cleared the rubble manually as a precautionary measure. Faridabad police commissioner P K Aggarwal said the people working at the site have all been accounted for. “We are not taking any chances and are removing the debris manually to make sure nobody is still trapped inside. A case of negligence will be registered against the contractor and the owner and any lapse found during the course of our investigation will be taken into account. We will ensure proper action is initiated against those found guilty.”