“Bhai mar jaunga aake bachalo,” said the feeble voice over the phone, but that was enough for Ish Raheja to realise that his younger brother Naresh was on the other side and that he was in grave danger. Ish and his other brothers rushed to the Sector 26 Sabzi Mandi and Naresh became one of the first to be rescued from under the rubble of the market, which collapsed on Sunday evening.

“The police and rescue teams were all there. But we knew exactly where he sits in his shop, and the exact location of the shop. We rushed there and cut through the roof with whatever we could get hold of,” said Ish as he took his brother for a CT scan at the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences in Chandigarh.

Naresh was pulled out of the debris drenched in blood, his clothes torn. However, he was lucky to survive with just head injuries and multiple fractures on both legs. Two persons were killed and 11 injured when the concrete roof of the three-decade-old market shed collapsed on Sunday evening.

“The earth shook, and before I could react the roof came crashing down on me,” said a semi-conscious Naresh. The roof over shop number 1 fell first, and then we could see the roofs collapse one after the another,” he added. Naresh runs a fruit and vegetable business from booth number 7 of the market. “It was suffocating and I felt severe pain in my legs, but I somehow called up my brother.”

... contd.