Narrow escape for mother and child in wall collapse

Abu Dhabi: A homemaker and her four-and-a-half-year-old child narrowly escaped unhurt when their bedroom wall collapsed last week, apparently after being damaged by the heavy rainfall that pounded the city.

The bedroom floor also caved in, leaving a pit five to five and a half feet deep, according to the family.

"We could have been killed. I am still shaken. My daughter and I were sleeping on the bed when the floor started caving in and the bedroom wall partly collapsed," said Deepa Balasubramaniam Krishnan, on Tuesday shortly after the incident.

Recounting her horror looking towards what is left of her apartment, Krishnan said that she was too tensed and did not know how to react. "I'm still nervous about what happened," she told Gulf News, as police, civil defence and municipality officials inspected the site.

The building is located behind Electra Street, in the vicinity of the Eldorado cinema.

Krishnan, her husband and her child have lived in the ground floor of the three-storey building for five years. "Our bedroom ceiling started leaking on Monday night because of the heavy rain. We informed the watchman and the maintenance company.

They promised to have a look in the morning. But since the rain stopped in the morning, the leaking also stopped," she said.

The civil defence team demolished the rest of the bedroom wall to avoid further accidents.