A loud crash reverberated through a crammed neighbourhood in Old Delhi’s Chawri Bazar on Thursday morning. Rushing out of their homes, residents — some jolted awake by the sound and others preparing to leave for work — saw that a three-storey building which was coming up in the locality had collapsed, trapping several labourers under the debris.
It sounded like some heavy machinery had burst, a resident recalled. “It was a very loud bang. People who usually wake up around 11 am were jolted awake by the noise. At first, we thought some heavy machinery had burst, but then we realised that a building had collapsed,” said 60-year-old Md Irshad.
A three-storey building which was under construction in Gali Sitara near Chawri Bazar metro station collapsed around 9.50 am, killing at least two people, with a rescue operation underway to pull out those buried under the rubble of twisted wires, pylons and concrete slabs, police said. Residents said the structure came down in stages, with the upper floor collapsing first and the remaining floors giving way over the next half an hour.
“The third-floor slab fell first. Then, after some time, the other slabs came down,” a resident said, describing the sequence of the collapse. The staggered fall, residents said, meant that some workers were able to get out before the entire structure came down.
Immediately after the incident, locals gathered at the site and tried to clear the rubble by hand. Among them was Abdul, who was walking through the lane when the building collapsed and narrowly escaped being caught under the debris. He stayed back and helped pull out at least two injured labourers.
“I was passing through the lane when the building collapsed. I narrowly escaped being caught underneath. Locals gathered to help pull out injured labourers, but the concrete slabs and heavy chunks of masonry were impossible to move by hand.
“We could hear people trapped underneath, but there was little we could do until the rescue teams arrived,” Abdul said.
The narrow lane made rescue particularly difficult. At some points, the passage is barely three feet wide, leaving just enough room for two people to stand side by side. Buildings rise on either side, while a dense web of overhead wires hangs above the street.
Fire tenders, ambulances and heavy machinery, including excavators, could not enter the lane and had to remain on the main road. The smaller passages were blocked after the collapse, restricting movement as residents and rescue personnel tried to reach the debris.
For Gilman, who has grown up in the neighbourhood, the collapse was particularly unsettling. He had left for work and reached the metro station barely five minutes before his family called to tell him that a building in the lane had come down.
“I have grown up in these lanes. I know the people here, I know the buildings. It was difficult to believe that something like this had happened here,” he said.
A 65-year-old resident, who rushed towards the building after hearing the crash, too, came close to being caught in the unfolding chaos. He was moving toward the site to help when someone called him back, preventing him from getting closer as another floor came crashing down.
Another resident said he heard a loud crash around 9.45 am, following which he rushed to the spot and found the entire structure reduced to rubble.
“My family members are currently trapped on the other side, but they are fine. Two people have been pulled out. One was severely injured and bleeding heavily, while another body was brought out, packed,” he said, adding that both were labourers.
The resident said construction work at the site had been underway for around three months, with the third floor completed recently.
Another local said he reached the area around 10.30 am and witnessed rescue teams pulling out a person from the debris.
He said people are not allowed near the site because authorities fear the adjoining building could also be unstable.
The rescue operation continued into the evening, with teams working through the rubble.
The narrow lane was teeming with locals, many of whom had witnessed the collapse or joined the rescue effort. For some, the crash has triggered uncertainty regarding their own homes in the densely populated neighbourhood, where ageing, dilapidated houses stand cheek by jowl with newly constructed multi-storey buildings.