In the congested lanes of south Mumbai’s Dongri, where an 100-year-old building collapsed on Tuesday morning, residents came together to form a human chain and removed the debris with their bare hands to rescue those trapped underneath.
At least two people have died and around 40 are still feared buried after the four-storey residential structure came crashing down with a thud in the densely-populated area.
As the narrow lanes made it difficult for the fire brigade and the ambulances to reach the site of the accident, the locals removed the debris brick by brick as they searched for survivors. They passed on the slabs of concrete on towards the outer regions of the neighbourhood.
Three teams of the National Disaster Response Force have been deployed for the rescue, along with the fire brigade, police and the disaster management team of the BMC.
Visuals showed the rescuers extricating young child out of the rubble, wrapped in blankets, and passing it down the lane. The child has been reported to be stable.
Ambulances could not reach the site and had to be parked around 50 metres away. An eyewitness said the building collapse felt like a quake. The building was owned by the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) and its officials also reached the site to assess the situation.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said around 15 families lived in the building. “Our focus right now is the people who are trapped, rescue operations are still on,” he said.
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