Two people died after a three-storey under-construction building collapsed in Old Delhi's Chawri Bazaar on Thursday morning. One more person is reported to be injured while several others are feared trapped.
According to preliminary information, the incident was reported at 9:50 am from Gali Sitara, near the Chawri Bazaar Metro station. At least six fire units, including water trucks and rescue vehicles, have been rushed to the spot. National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel are carrying out rescue operations at the site.
#WATCH | Delhi: NDRF carries out search and rescue operations at the spot where a portion of an under construction building collapsed in Delhi's Chawri Bazaar area. Two people have lost their lives in the incident. https://t.co/IcMXASyMHX
The visuals from the ground show a part of the building lying on the ground with debris accumulated in a narrow lane, between adjacent vertical buildings. Historically narrow lanes of Old Delhi with vehicles parked on both sides, have posed a challenge for rescuers. One of the videos from the ground shows residents removing their vehicles from the affected lane and making way for an ambulance. Rescuers have to walk metres to reach the incident spot and pull people out of the debris.
According to eyewitness Mohd Nayeem, the incident happened at around 9:30 am. "We were asleep when we heard a crashing sound. We all got up and rushed outside. We thought our own house was collapsing. When we checked, we realised it was the house being built next door," Nayeem said.
According to a local resident, no one lived in the building which has been under construction for the last three to four months. At the time of the incident, only labourers were present inside the building. The property owner lives in a rented accommodation with his family.
This comes days after two slabs of a building collapsed in northeast Delhi, killing two men. The incident occurred in the Milan Garden area during the construction of a new floor above an old house. During the construction work, a portion of the existing roof reportedly gave way, causing the slab above it to collapse as well.
The victims, Chanderpal, 60, and Vijay Kumar, 33, were trapped under the debris and declared dead after being rescued and taken to a hospital.
Before that, on October 7, three people, including a child, died after a four-storey building collapsed in the Seemapuri area of northeast Delhi. Eight injured people were rescued and taken to Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital in Tahirpur for treatment.
Reacting to the latest tragedy, AAP's Saurabh Bharadwaj hit out at Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi. After a building running as a boys' paying guest (PG) accommodation facility in South Delhi's Satya Niketan collapsed on September 6, the MCD carried out safety audits. Bharadwaj questioned those audits and asked: "Rekha Gupta's government and MCD conducted multiple safety audits of all buildings in Delhi, yet buildings keep collapsing. Why?"
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