At least 21 people died when a six-story building weakened by monsoon rains collapsed in Mumbai, India, on Thursday, officials said.
Another 50 people may be trapped inside the 117-year-old residential building. It housed a daycare center for pre-school children on its ground floor, and fell about 20 minutes before the center was to begin its day at 9 a.m.
Suspecting gas leakage, police cut off gas and electricity to the building and to surrounding structures in Mumbai's Bhendi Bazaar area.
The collapse came as Mumbai recovers from heavy monsoon rains on Tuesday that flooded the city.
The collapsed building had an unstable foundation and was vulnerable to extreme rainfall, India Today reported.
The city of over 18 million people has many old buildings in need of repair. At least 10,000 buildings in Mumbai are over 70 years old, and residents continue to dwell in them despite municipal notices regarding their safety.
A 2017 survey by the Brihamumbai Municipal Corp., the civic body governing the city, identified 617 it regarded as unsafe. Of those, only 112 were vacated.
The Maharashtra state government ordered an investigation into the collapse of the building.Rescue workers in Mumbai searched for up to 20 people feared trapped in a six-storey building that collapsed early on Thursday, following two days of torrential rain in India’s commercial hub.
Another 50 people may be trapped inside the 117-year-old residential building. It housed a daycare center for pre-school children on its ground floor, and fell about 20 minutes before the center was to begin its day at 9 a.m.
Suspecting gas leakage, police cut off gas and electricity to the building and to surrounding structures in Mumbai's Bhendi Bazaar area.
The collapse came as Mumbai recovers from heavy monsoon rains on Tuesday that flooded the city.
The collapsed building had an unstable foundation and was vulnerable to extreme rainfall, India Today reported.
The city of over 18 million people has many old buildings in need of repair. At least 10,000 buildings in Mumbai are over 70 years old, and residents continue to dwell in them despite municipal notices regarding their safety.
A 2017 survey by the Brihamumbai Municipal Corp., the civic body governing the city, identified 617 it regarded as unsafe. Of those, only 112 were vacated.
The Maharashtra state government ordered an investigation into the collapse of the building.Rescue workers in Mumbai searched for up to 20 people feared trapped in a six-storey building that collapsed early on Thursday, following two days of torrential rain in India’s commercial hub.
13 people had been confirmed dead, a municipal authority official said, while rescuers estimated more than 50 had been injured and taken to hospital.
“Rescue operations are already underway. We have sent 12 fire brigade vehicles to the spot. Ambulances are also ready to take the victims to the hospital,” a fire control room official said.
The collapse is the second in Mumbai in a little over a month. In July, 17 people were killed when a four-storey building crumbled after undergoing suspected unauthorised renovations.
Police had yet to determine what caused the collapse on Thursday, which was again testing the city’s rescue operations after 14 people were killed by floods from heavy monsoon rains earlier in the week.
A police official told Reuters nine families were living in the old building, in the Dongri neighbourhood, an area of narrow streets with closely packed buildings, some nearly a century old.
Adjacent buildings were evacuated after the collapse, officials at the site said. The narrow streets made it difficult to bring in excavators, they said.
A large team from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) was also involved in the rescue operations.
The building housed a sweet shop warehouse on the ground floor and most families living on the higher floors were in their houses as the collapse happened early in the morning, officials said.An 117-year-old condemned building collapsed in the Indian financial hub of Mumbai on Thursday after two days of torrential rain, killing at least 21 people, with some feared trapped.
Thirteen people were rescued and were recovering in hospital, with six firemen also injured in the six-storey building, the chief fire official said.
“There was a massive bang. We couldn’t see anything due to the dust and smoke. Once the dust settled, we realised it was a building collapse,” said area resident Amina Sheikh.
Disaster struck early in the morning as Mumbai was emerging from two days of heavy rain that flooded the city and killed 14 people.
The collapse was the second in Mumbai in a little over a month. In late July, 17 people were killed when a four-storey building collapsed after suspected unauthorised renovations.
The building that collapsed on Thursday in one of the most densely populated areas of the city housed a nursery school, despite being declared unsafe by the city’s municipal housing authority in 2011. And families were still living there.
Desperate relatives pleaded with rescuers to help find their loved ones after getting phone calls from trapped survivors. About 200 police and fire personnel sorted through the debris.
Police had yet to determine what caused the collapse near Crawford market, a landmark of south Mumbai’s old city with narrow streets packed with markets and shops. Many Muslims live in the neighbourhood.
Rescuers said the area’s narrow roads made it difficult to bring in excavators.
The building housed a sweet shop warehouse on the ground floor and a nursery school on the first floor, although the collapse happened before the children arrived.
