Seven children and three others were killed and 11, including a four-year-old boy, rescued after a three-storeyed building collapsed in Maharashtra's Bhiwandi town on Monday, police said. Bhiwandi is a powerloom town around 10 km from Thane.
Around 10 persons are still feared trapped after the 43-year-old Jhilani building caved in at 3.40 am, police said, adding search operations are underway. The dead children include a two-year-old, a civic official said.
The building which was said to be in a dilapidated state, suddenly came crashing down, catching all the victims unaware in their sleep.
#UPDATE Maharashtra: Death toll rises to 10 in the building collapse incident in Bhiwandi, Thane which took place earlier today.
— ANI (@ANI) September 21, 2020
Rescue operation by NDRF (National Disaster Response Force) still underway. pic.twitter.com/MXHBlJQWWg
Personnel of the Thane Disaster Response Force (TDRF) were seen pulling out the boy, Ubed Quraishi, from the debris and feeding him water. The building had 40 flats and around 150 persons lived in it, an official said.
A civic official told PTI that the building, located at Narpoli's Patel Compound near Dhamankar Naka, collapsed while the residents were asleep.
Teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) rushed to the spot. NDRF DG S N Pradhan said the teams were using a canine squad to search persons trapped in the debris.
A portion of the building collapsed and many occupants were trapped in the debris of the collapsed building, a Thane Municipal Corporation official said.
The building was not in the list of dilapidated structures of the Bhiwandi-Nizampur Municipal Corporation, he said.
An eyewitness said local residents rushed to the spot immediately after the collapse and helped pull out some persons from the debris.
The power supply to the locality was snapped as a precautionary measure, the official said, adding the injured have been admitted to local hospitals.