The death roll in Monday’s collapse of a three-storey building at Narpoli in the powerloom town of Bhiwandi in the adjoining Thane district mounted to 40 on Wednesday, as more number bodies from under the debris on the third consecutive day.
A 43-year-old three-storey Jilani building -- situated in the Patel Compound at Narpoli near Dhamankar Naka at Bhiwandi -- had crashed like a proverbial pack of cards at 3.45 am, when the residents were sleeping at their homes in the early hours of Monday.
The collapsed building had in all 40 flats. There were 150 residents in the building when it collapsed.
The rescue and relief operations, which have been going on for the past three days, have been hampered by heavy intermittent rains.
A few persons are still feared trapped under the debris of the collapsed structure.