23 dead in landslide, wall collapse in India monsoon rains

MUMBAI: At least 23 people were killed after several homes were crushed by a collapsed wall and a landslide triggered by heavy monsoon rains in India’s financial capital Mumbai, authorities said yesterday.

Rainwater also inundated a water purification complex, disrupting supply “in most of the parts of Mumbai”, a megacity of 20 million people, civic authorities said. A falling tree demolished a wall in the eastern suburb of Chembur during yesterday’s early hours, burying nearby residents, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) said. Seventeen bodies have been recovered from the rubble, it added, with rescue operations ongoing. “In the adjacent house, I saw a small girl who was trapped in the debris. She was shouting ‘save me, save me’,” Firoz Khan, who was caught up in the downpour in Chembur, told AFP.

“Her body was trapped in the mud. Somehow, I managed to pull her out. She had injuries in her legs. I narrowly survived this collapse.” Another resident, Manda Gautam Pradhan, said she had seen “rocks and mud... gushing down the hill along with the rainwater”. In the suburb of Vikhroli in the city’s northeast, six people were killed after a landslide hit five homes early Sunday, the NDRF added.

Building collapses are common during India’s June-September monsoon season, with old and rickety structures buckling under days of non-stop rain. Last month, 12 people were killed when a building collapsed in a Mumbai slum. And last September, 39 people died when a three-storey apartment block collapsed in Bhiwandi near the financial capital. Mumbai has been hit by downpours since Saturday, with local transport services affected. The city’s civic body did not say when the water supply was expected to be restored, but advised residents to boil the liquid before using it.