MORE then 13 people were killed and over 40 feared trapped after a decades-old, four-storey building collapsed in south Mumbai’s crowded Dongri on Tuesday. Eight people have been rescued.
Three large teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) are at the site, looking for survivors. The area, full of dilapidated buildings on narrow lanes, was also flooded in heavy rain in the past weeks.
Ten ambulances and fire trucks are parked some distance away from the building as the lanes are too narrow for them to enter.
“We heard a loud noise. Everybody shouted, ‘building is falling, building is falling’. I ran. It felt like a big earthquake,” a teenager who saw the building fall told.
“I saw bodies… There were some seven-eight families in the building,” another eyewitness told.
In visuals of the rescue operation, NDRF personnel in their bright orange safety gear are seen trying to remove concrete blocks as they probe the openings amid the debris for signs of life.
