7 kids among 13 die in Maharashtra building collapse

Thane, September 21

Thirteen persons, including seven children, died and 20 others, including a four-year-old boy, were rescued after a three-storeyed building collapsed in Maharashtra’s Bhiwandi town on Monday, police said.

The 43-year-old Jhilani building caved in at 3.40 am, police said, adding a two-year-old boy was among the dead. Two civic officials have been suspended in connection with the collapse and a case had been registered against the building owner, an official said.

Thane Disaster Response Force (TDRF) personnel pulled out the four-year-old boy, Ubed Quraishi, from the debris. The building at Bhiwandi, a powerloom town around 10 km from Thane, had 40 flats and around 150 persons lived there, an official said.

A civic official said the building, located at Narpoli’s Patel Compound near Dhamankar Naka, collapsed while the residents were asleep.

Teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) are at the spot. SN Pradhan, NDRF DG, said they used a canine squad to search persons trapped in the debris. The building was not in the list of dilapidated structures of the Bhiwandi-Nizampur Municipal Corporation (BNMC),a Thane Municipal Corporation official said. The power supply to the locality was snapped as a precautionary measure, the official said, adding the injured have been admitted to local hospitals. — PTI