No fewer than 35 people, mostly labourers, lost their lives, and more than 50 injured on the outskirts of Mumbai, India after a building collapsed while under construction, with many victims believed to be labourers living at the site, police have said.
A section of the seven-storey building collapsed late Thursday evening before the entire structure came down, with 50 injured, and some in critical condition, a senior officer said on Friday.
The injured have been taken to at least five hospitals in the district of about 1.5 million people, as authorities are still looking for the contractor of the building, which is reported to be constructed “illegally” on forestland.
Teams from the National Disaster Response Force and other rescue workers were trying to clear the debris from the site amid fears there may be more people trapped in the twisted pile of concrete and steel.
The victims were workers and members of their families who were living in some of the still-unfinished areas of the building.
According to the Hindustan Times daily, the builders may have flouted norms.
“Seven floors were built in merely three to four months. It was bound to collapse due to the inferior construction material used by the builders,” the paper quoted the local head of the disaster management cell as saying.
Building collapses are a common occurrence in India, where a booming economy has led to a mushrooming of multi-storey structures which are often unauthorised and flout safety laws.
66 people were two years ago killed, and 80 were injured when a building collapsed in Delhi.
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