As many as 18 people were killed and 14 others injured after a ground-plus—three storey building collapsed at Kurla (East) in north-central Mumbai shortly before midnight on Monday.
There were 32 residents at the building “Nayaknagar Cooperative Co-operative Housing society” when the structure caved in at around 11.53 pm.
The rescue and relief operation that began immediately after the mishap continued till late on Tuesday. Of the 14 injured, nine were treated and allowed to go, while the remaining five persons are undergoing treatment at The injured were rushed to Rajawadi Hospital at Ghatkopar and LTMG Hospital at Sion, both located in north-central Mumbai.
The building that collapsed was old and it was in a dilapidated condition. Today’s was the first building collapse in the metropolis during the current year.
The teams of State Disaster Management Authority, Mumbai Fire Brigade, police officials and besides local volunteers, who joined the rescue efforts there had expressed a potential risk to the adjoining second wing of the same building which could also collapse anytime.
The fire brigade personnel identified eight of those killed in the mishap Ajayy M. Pasnor (28) Ajinkya Gaikwad (34) Kumar Prajapati(20) Sikandar Rajbhor (21) Anoop Rajbhor (18). Arvind R. Bharti (19) Anil Yadav (21) Shyam Prajapati (18) while ten other deceased had not been identified till late on Tuesday evening.
Meanwhile, chief minister Uddhav Thackeray announced an assistance of Rs 5 lakh to each of the bereaved families.
Maharashtra Minister Aaditya Thackeray visited the mishap site twice – once immediately after the mishap on Tuesday night and second time on Tuesday. Industry Minister Subhash Desai, senior officials of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and police officials visited the mishap site. In all 15 residents were rescued from the debris of the building Two pigeons have been rescued alive from the debris at the Kurla crash site. Two pigeons were rescued alive from under the debris.