OLD GOA
An elderly woman and her son died after a partition wall of their house collapsed on them on Monday afternoon.
According to information available, the mud wall collapsed at around 3.15 pm and both the mother Maria Rodrigues (70) and son Alfred Rodrigues (51) were buried under the rubble.
Neighbours immediately rushed to the site and attempted to rescue the two.
Among those who responded first included Ankush Chari, Prashant Chari, Nilkhant (Ulhas) Zalmi, panch Nandesh Mayekar, Savio Fernandes and Kashinath Naik.
They removed the mud with their bare hands and were able to first remove Alfred from the rubble, who was immediately shifted to the Mandur Rural Health and Training Centre.
Local panch Tejasvi Naik was then informed about the incident who later intimated the fire brigade.
The Old Goa fire personnel arrived at the spot and along with the locals then removed the mother Maria from the rubble, with one of them attempting to resuscitate through CPR.
Later, she was shifted to the Mandur RHTC in a police vehicle as the 108 ambulance did not arrive.
Sadly though, both the mother and son were declared dead on arrival by the doctors at the RHTC.
As fate would have it, Alfred had lost his wife only six months back.
Revealing more details about the incident, sources informed that the deceased Alfred called his brother Simon and informed him that portions of the partition wall are coming down and urged him to come for help.
Simon, a bus driver, immediately rushed home but before he could reach home the wall had collapsed and his mother and brother buried under the rubble.
Simon, too, joined the rescue operation along with the neighbours and one among them informed The Goan that the deceased Alfred in fact called out his brother Simon to help him.
However, as fate would have it, Alfred could not be saved as also the mother, Maria.
Meanwhile, as news about the incident spread in the village and surrounding areas, St Andre MLA Viresh Borkar, former MLA Francisco Silveira, Mandur sarpanch Prashant Naik, AAP leader Ramrao Wagh, ZP member Dhaku Madkaikar, and others rushed to the spot to take stock of the situation, and console the grieving family.
SP Akshat Kaushal, SDPO Sudesh Naik, Agassaim PI Anant Gaonkar and other police officers also arrived at the site.
Later, SDM Rajesh Azgaonkar, Tiswadi Mamlatdar Kaushik Dessai also paid a visit to help the family in relocating as the house was not safe for staying.
Meanwhile, the bodies of both the deceased have been sent to the GMC morgue and the post-mortem will be conducted on Tuesday.
