6 of family killed as 4-storey building collapses in Capital
New Delhi, July 13 -- Six members of a family were killed and eight others injured - four from the same family as the deceased - after an unauthorised four-storey residential building collapsed in an approximately five feet narrow lane in Janta Colony of the Welcome neighbourhood, northeast Delhi, on Saturday morning, police said.
At least five adjoining multi-storey buildings in a nearly 10-metre radius were either partially damaged or developed cracks due to the impact of the collapse and the search and rescue operations were hampered because the incident happened in an area where buildings stood cheek by jowl, they added. Locals said the residential building was around 40 years old, and underwent revamp work around five years ago.
Joint commissioner of police (northeast) Vijay Kumar said that a team reached the spot after the Welcome police station received information about the collapse at 7.04am. "A total of 14 people were trapped when the building collapsed. Initially, eight people were rescued. The bodies of a couple, aged 50 and 46, were retrieved at 11am. The remaining four missing people were also dead by the time we spotted them and their bodies were retrieved around 5.30pm. All those listed as missing were have been accounted for, but the search and rescue operation is still ongoing," said Kumar.
Personnel from the National Disaster Response Force, fire department, police, Municipal Corporation of Delhi, and civil defence volunteers carried out the rescue operations. Delhi Fire Services chief Atul Garg said the fire control room was informed about the collapse around 7am at lane number 5 on Eidgah Road. "Seven fire tenders were rushed along with rescue teams... Two bodies were found under the rubble and removed around 11am," he said.
Officials said the building was owned by 50-year-old Abdul Matloob Khan, one of the deceased people. There was a vacant hall on the ground floor of the building and the three floors above it were occupied by Khan and his family. Of the eight injured people, seven were admitted to Jag Pravesh Chandra hospital, and a 14-month-old boy, Ahmed Khan, was taken to Guru Teg Bahadur hospital. Ahmed is Khan's grandson and his condition is said to be critical, officials said.
The five other deceased people were identified as Khan's wife Rabia, 46, their three children, Javed Khan, 23, Abdullah Khan,15, and Zubia (first name known), 27, and Zubia's daughter, Fozia, two. Four people injured from the same family include Khan's other sons, Parvez Khan, 32, and Naved Khan, 19, Parvez's wife Siza, 21, and their 14-month-old son Ahmad.
The four other injured lived in an adjacent building, which was also damaged. They were identified by police as Govinda (first name known), 60, his wife Deepa (first name known), 56, their daughter, Jyoti Kashyap, 27, and Jyoti's husband, Ravi Kashyap, 27. Deepa's condition is also critical after parts of concrete fell on her head during the collapse.
Due to difficulties emerging from unauthorised constructions in the locality, rescuers formed a 50-metre human chain to remove the debris manually and dump it in a nearby ground, officials from the NDRF and local administration told HT. An electricity pillar inside the lane also broke because of the impact and fell on another building, blocking the rescue.
It was not immediately clear what led to the collapse but some neighbours said the building was poorly constructed and there were also seepage issues. Police said they will soon register a case, they said. No compensation or ex gratia was announced till Saturday night.
Govinda, one of the injured, said he was sleeping on their first floor house with his wife Deepa, and son Ankush, 26. Govinda's daughter, Jyoti and her husband Ravi were on the second floor. Jyoti and Ravi said they fell on the rubble of Matloob's building when their floor came crashing down....
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