Seven persons, including four members of a family, were killed and four others injured, when a nearly vacant “under litigation” seven-storey building collapsed on an adjacent chawl at Yashwant Nagar at Santacruz (east) in north-west Mumbai on Friday morning.
The dilapidated Shankarlok building, located in the neighbourhood of Grand Hyatt Hotel, crashed on the neighbouring Catherine Chawl around 11. 30 am, trapping several of the hapless residents living in the tenements of the chawl.
According to an official at the disaster control room of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), seven bodies had been recovered from under the debris of the collapsed structure by the civic fire
brigade and the National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) personnel till the evening.
The rescuers rushed four injured persons to the nearby V N Desai Hospital, where their condition was “stable” by doctors attending on them.
Of the seven persons killed, six are residents of the Catherine Chawl, while a 32-year-old woman, identified as Sudha Sridharan - whose body was recovered from the under the debris of the collapsed structure in the afternoon - was a resident of Shankarlok building.
Informed civic sources said that the collapsed building was under litigation for a long time and the BMC had issued demolition notices to the residents of the building, which was in a dilapidated condition.
Most of the residents, excepting one family, had vacated the building. On its part, the BMC had declared the building as “dangerous” and “unsafe” for living. The lone family, which was engaged in a litigation with the BMC, had moved a local court and obtained a stay on the demolition of the structure.