Dozens killed in Mumbai as flats collapse

The eight-story building in the suburb of Thane caved in on Thursday evening, police said. Rescue workers with sledgehammers, powered saws and hydraulic jacks struggled yesterday to break through the tower of rubble in their search for possible survivors. Six bulldozers were taken to the scene.

“There may be [a] possibility people are trapped inside right now,” Thane police commissioner KP Raghuvanshi said.

At the time of the collapse, between 100 and 150 people were in the building. Many were residents or builders, who were living at the site as they worked on it, said Sandeep Malvi, a spokesman for the Thane government. More than 20 people remained missing yesterday afternoon and three floors of the building still needed to be searched.

RS Rajesh, an official with the National Disaster Response Force who was at the scene said:. “All the three floors are sandwiched … so it’s difficult for us”.

The dead included 17 children, police said.

A nearby hospital was filled with the injured, many of whom had head wounds, fractures and spinal injuries. Hospital officials searched in vain for the parents of an injured ten-month-old girl who had been rescued.

At least four floors of the building had been completed and were occupied. Workers had finished three more and were adding the eighth when it collapsed, police inspector Digamber Jangale said.

It was not clear what caused the structure to collapse, but Mr Raghuvanshi said it was not well built. Police were searching for the builders to arrest them, he said.

“The inquiry is ongoing. We are all busy with the rescue operation; our priority now is to rescue as many as possible,” he said.

Police with dogs were searching the building, which appeared to have buckled and collapsed upon itself. Rescuers and nearby residents stood on the remains of the roof trying to reach people trapped within. Residents carried the injured to ambulances and one man carried a small child caked with dust from the wreckage.

Building collapses are common in India as builders try to cut corners by using poor-quality materials. Multi-storey structures are built with inadequate supervision. The demand for housing around India’s cities and pervasive corruption allow builders to add unauthorised floors or build entirely illegal buildings.

The neighbourhood where the building collapsed was part of a belt of more than 2,000 illegal structures that had sprung up in the area in recent years, said Mr Malvi.

“Notices have been served several times for such illegal construction, sometimes notices are sent ten times for the same building,” he said.