Nineteen persons were killed and 14 were injured after one wing of a residential building, Naik Nagar Society, in Kurla collapsed on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday. The rescue operation to extract survivors from the debris was still underway at the time of going to press, and there were fears that the other wing might collapse, too.
After the incident, Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed grief at the loss of lives and announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh each from the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund for the next of kin and Rs 50,000 for the injured. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, too, announced aid of Rs 5 lakh from his relief fund to the families of the victims.
BMC officials said the three-storeyed structure near Kurla depot was dilapidated. The labour contractor who had rented the houses despite knowing the condition of the building was arrested within 24 hours after lodging an FIR, the police said.
The locals said as the building collapsed, there was a loud noise, followed by tremors and shaking of walls. A cloud of dust swirled around the spot soon after. Residents from the neighbourhood thought it was a cylinder blast and came running out. The Fire Brigade and disaster response force teams reached the spot immediately and started the rescue operations. The victims were taken to civic-run Rajawadi and Sion Lokmanya Tilak hospitals.
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Eyewitness Suvarna Bansode said, “The whole house shook and we rushed out. A few minutes later, there was thick dust all around. After it settled, we saw the collapsed building.”
Another resident of a nearby chawl, Mayur Rajguru said she had finished dinner and was walking outside with a friend. “I saw it coming down like a pack of cards. We saw people stuck in the tilted part of the building; they were rescued with sarees.”
