MUMBAI: At least 11 people, including eight children, died after a residential building collapsed on top of another building in the western Indian city of Mumbai, local officials said.
Rescue efforts are underway as more people are feared trapped in the debris in the Malad area. An investigation has been ordered but a minister said heavy rains could have caused the collapse.
Resident Mohammed Rafiq Siddiqui said he had lost nine family members when a four-story tenement block came down on the adjoining building where he lived. “I left home at 10.30 pm to fetch some milk, but by the time I came home the building had collapsed,” Siddiqui said.
“People came to help us when the building collapsed, the police came, but they couldn’t do anything,” he said as he stood in the narrow lane where relatives had gathered, desperately hoping that rescuers would find someone alive.
Meanwhile, the police said that 18 people were pulled from the debris but only seven of them survived. “Police will carry out a proper investigation and take further action,” senior officer Dilip Sawant told local media.
Wednesday was the first day of heavy rains in Mumbai, as the monsoon moved up India’s west coast, and almost every year some buildings collapse in the densely-populated city, due to their poor construction.
Smaller incidents such as wall collapses have been reported from other parts of the city, but there have been no reports of injuries so far. Weather experts say heavy rains will continue to lash the city over the next few days.
