19 dead after over 100-year-old building collapses in Mumbai

Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, August 31

At least 19 persons died and more than 30 others, including fire brigade personnel, suffered injuries after a five-storey building collapsed in south Mumbai’s Bhendi Bazaar area this morning, police and fire officials said.

The 117-year-old Hussaini Building located near the JJ Hospital housed five families and a commercial establishment.

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“We are still trying to ascertain the number of people living in the premises,” a police official said.

Some of those trapped in the collapsed premises were making phone calls to their friends and relatives for help.

Fire officials said it was not possible to bring in excavators as the roads leading to the structure were narrow.

Survivors from the building told police that the structure had become weak following the heavy rain in the past few days.

The Mumbai Municipal Corporation had declared the building unsafe more than six years ago, but some of its residents had refused to shift, officials said.

The Hussaini Building was part of a cluster of buildings that were scheduled to be demolished as part of the Bhendi Bazaar redevelopment project.

The Saifee Burhani Upliftment Trust (SBUT), which is carrying out the redevelopment project, said it had already shifted seven families three years ago.

However, several residents had sought more clarity on the alternate accommodation so they stayed put in the building.

Maharashtra Industries Minister Subhash Desai, who is the guardian minister for Mumbai, while visiting the site of the collapse, said the administration’s priority was to first rescue those trapped in the building.

“The government will order a probe to look into the cause of the collapse later,” Desai added.

Within a few minutes of the collapse, fire brigade officials and personnel from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) rushed to the spot to carry out rescue and relief operations.