3 Dead in Navi Mumbai Building Collapse

Mumbai: At least three people were killed and two injured after a four-story residential building collapsed in Navi Mumbai’s CBD Belapur early Saturday morning. The two injured people were pulled out alive from under the rubble. The tragedy could have been bigger had 52 other residents of the building not been evacuated in time after cracks were noticed in it in the wee hours, officials said.

“The four-story building with 13 residential units and three shops collapsed early this morning. A man and a woman who were trapped under the rubble were rescued and admitted to a hospital,” Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) Commissioner Kailas Shinde said.

After hearing a cracking sound on the second floor at around 4am, several residents fled to a nearby safe place. The deceased have been identified as Mohammad Meraj (30) and Shafiq Ansari (29). The third casualty was not identified immediately, the officials said. The NDRF rescue team found him unconscious under the rubble and rushed him to NMMC hospital, where the chief medical officer declared him dead on arrival.

NMMC commissioner Shinde informed that the building was constructed in 2013. Most of the residents had fled half an hour before the building collapsed. Officials were facing problems establishing identities of the victims as most of them were tenants and were not known to each other.

Rescue teams managed to pull Lal Mohammad (22) and Rukhsana (21) from the rubble around 6 am. Officials said that at least two more people are feared trapped under debris. Other residents, who managed to leave the building before it collapsed, have been accommodated at a government shelter home.

Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde, who was in Delhi for Niti Aayog’s governing council meeting, spoke to the Navi Mumbai municipal commissioner and directed him that necessary assistance be provided to the injured and affected persons.