75-year-old building collapses in Old Delhi
THE FIRST TWO FLOORS OF THE BUILDING WERE USED AS GODOWNS WHILE THE GROUND FLOOR HAD TWO SHOPS
The intermittent rain over the last two days led to a building collapse in Old Delhi’s Sadar Bazar area on Friday.
Sources said that around 5.20pm on Friday, police received information about the collapse of a three-storey building in Pan Mandi area of Sadar Bazar. Fire officials later said there were no casualties.
The first two floors of the building were used as godowns while the ground floor had two shops. The building is believed to be more than 75 years old.
Police said prima facie, it appears that the building was in a dilapidated condition which may have worsened because of the rains. Fire officials said seven fire tenders were sent to the spot but there were no reports of any casualties. A few people, who were in the ground floor, reportedly managed to escape and survived the accident. Locals told police that the building’s first floor had collapsed first, giving occupants on the ground floor enough time to escape. As soon as they occupats got out, the building collapsed completely.
Over the last two days Delhi has received around 72mm of rainfall.
Laxmi Nagar MLA Nitin Tyagi wrote on twitter that he had recently got the list of dangerous buildings as tagged by the MCD but the three storey building was not mentioned on the list. MCD officials said the collapse was a result of the rain.
“We have launched a probe as to why the building collapsed. There was no new construction nearby. It was an old building. As the building started to crumble, people fled, so there are no injuries. We are removing the debris carefully because of the rain,” said North DMC spokesperson Yoginder Singh Mann