MUMBAI: Twelve persons were killed after a four-storey residential building collapsed in south Mumbai’s congested Dongri area Tuesday, trapping over 40 people under the debris, civic officials said.
Twelve people were killed after the ‘Kausarbaug’ building, located in a bustling narrow lane in Tandel Street of Dongri area of south Mumbai, crashed, housing minister Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil said.
A BMC official said seven persons were injured in the collapse.
Mumbai mayor Vishwanath Mahadeshwar said he has asked the municipal commissioner to launch a probe in the incident.
TV channels showed dramatic visuals of a child, wrapped in a cloth bundle, being carried out of the debris by rescue workers. The child is alive, officials said.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has opened a shelter at Imamwada Municipal Secondary Girls’ School after the building collapse, a civic official said.
“A team of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) is reaching the spot. We are assuming that 10 to 12 families are still under the debris,” Mumbadevi MLA Amin Patel told reporters at the spot.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said the building was around 100 years old. It was not in the list of dilapidated buildings and was given to a developer for redevelopment.
Between 10 to 15 families lived in the building, he said.
Locals said the building belonged to the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA). However, Vinod Ghosalkar, chief of MHADA repair board, said the building did not belong to the housing body.
Legislator Bhai Jagtap said residents had complained to housing authorities to take prompt measures as the building was very old and in a dilapidated state for a long time.
Some part of the building was left standing after the collapse.
Fire brigade, Mumbai Police and civic officials rushed to the site but the constricted lanes made it difficult to access the area, reduced to a mass of rubble, twisted concrete and broken wires.
Scores of locals joined in the effort, forming a human chain to help in removing the debris brick by brick and picking up slabs of concrete to locate those buried.
Ambulances could not reach the site and had to be parked around 50 metres away.
Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Barve visited the site of the building collapse.
The rescue work, which was hampered by narrow lanes, was further delayed as politicians, including ministers, legislators and leader of opposition, made a beeline to the building collapse site. PTI
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