At least 34 killed in landslide and wall collapse in Mumbai
WEATHER DEPARTMENT FORECASTS HEAVY SHOWERS IN THE NEXT FOUR DAYS
At least 34 people died in three Mumbai suburbs after several houses collapsed when heavy rain triggered landslides, officials said yesterday, and forecasts of further downpours could force authorities to relocate people living in danger zones.
Rescuers resorted to using their hands to dig up the ground in an attempt to find survivors, local television showed, as authorities said more people could be trapped inside the debris.
Emergency workers carried the injured through narrow lanes on makeshift stretchers.
Heavy rains expected
Several areas of Mumbai have been hit by floods due to heavy rainfall over the past 24 hours, crippling India’s financial capital. The mega-city is expected to receive heavy to very heavy rainfall in the next four days, the weather department said.
“We’ll take the decision to shift the people who are living in a dangerous situation to permanent settlements immediately,” said Nawab Malik, a state cabinet minister.
Torrential rain, especially during India’s July-September monsoon, often triggers the collapse of buildings, especially older or illegally built structures. Within the last 24 hours, authorities have reported 11 incidents of houses or walls collapsing in the Mumbai area, officials said. In one neighbourhood, about half a dozen shacks located at the base of a hill collapsed on top of each other, they added.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered his condolences in a tweet and announced aid for the victims.
Train services suspended
The Western Railway and Central Railway briefly suspended suburban train services in Mumbai after the heavy rains, and many long distance trains were terminated or regulated at various stations, officials said.
Seven hutment dwellers died as six shanties collapsed after a landslide following incessant overnight rains in Vikhroli suburb at 2.30am, a civic official said. Two persons were injured and were sent to a nearby hospital, he added.
A 16-year-old boy died after a forest department compound wall collapsed in suburban Bhandup, an official said.
A viral video showed a twowheeler being dragged in water in an inundated street in Chinchpokli area. The suburban train services were suspended due to water logging on the tracks due to the overnight heavy downpour, railway officials said.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a red alert for Mumbai in the backdrop of heavy rains, a BMC official said. Alerts by the IMD are colour-coded from green to red. A ‘green’ alert stands for ‘no warning’: no action needs to be taken by the authorities, and the forecast is of light to moderate rain.
A ‘red’ alert stands for “warning”, and asks authorities to “take action”. An ‘orange’ alert indicates that the authorities are expected to ‘be prepared’. A sudden change in climatic conditions led to Mumbai witnessing over 100mm rainfall in six hours, the IMD said in an early morning bulletin. It also changed the rains forecast for the city from orange to red alert.
The IMD said that till 6.30am yesterday, Mumbai and adjoining areas received over 120mm rainfall in preceding 12 hours. Mumbai would receive ‘heavy to very heavy’ rainfall at a few places with extremely heavy rainfall at isolated places, the IMD said.