New Delhi: Three people, including a pregnant woman and a child, were killed after a four-storey building collapsed in the Seemapuri area of northeast Delhi on Wednesday. At least eight others were injured.
Rescue teams pulled eight injured people from the debris and shifted them to hospital for treatment. Officials said the body of a child aged around 18 months was also recovered from the rubble.
Authorities are examining whether cracks that developed in the building after an earthquake in Uttarakhand on Tuesday evening may have contributed to the collapse. However, the exact cause has not yet been established.
Residents said they could hear people trapped beneath the debris after the building came down. According to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), neighbours told officials that cracks had appeared in the building following the earthquake and that the owner had been asking residents to vacate the premises.
The Delhi Fire Service received a call about the collapse at around 3.30pm, following which rescue teams reached the spot. Personnel from Delhi Police, the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA), the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), MCD and the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) are involved in the search and rescue operation.
A police officer said eight injured people, including a three-year-old child, had been rescued and that the operation was continuing.
The MCD said the collapsed building was around 20 to 25 years old and was occupied when the incident occurred. A wall of an adjoining building also collapsed, while the boundary wall of a nearby mosque was damaged in the impact.
Rescue operations remain underway as authorities work to determine the circumstances that led to the collapse.
