Residents trapped under building
A six-storey building under construction collapsed onto an adjacent building east of New Delhi, killing at least three people and trapping several others under the debris, police said yesterday.
Chief Fire Officer Arun Kumar Singh said at least 12 workers were in the building at the time and are feared trapped under rubble, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.
The rescuers have so far found three bodies from the debris, police officer Ajay Pal Sharma said.
The second building also collapsed under the impact of the first building that fell on Tuesday night, he said.
The four-storey building was two years old and only one family lived there, district magistrate B.N. Singh said. One security guard and some workers on the ground floor may have been inside at the time as well.
More than 100 rescuers with cranes, sledgehammers and chain saws worked through the night to remove the debris in Shahberi village, nearly 40 kilometres east of New Delhi, said Krishan Kumar, a rescue agency official.
Drills were being used to remove metal rods to reach those trapped. A dog squad was at the site smelling for signs of life.
The owner of the building under construction and his two associates have been detained for questioning, Sharma said. The cause of the building collapse was not immediately known.
Rescuers found it difficult to take cranes and drilling machines to the site, where the ground was dug up during the construction work and had filled with water from monsoon rains. Television images showed a police officer dangling from a crane, trying to locate those trapped through the windows of the collapsed building. –