The toll in the building collapse in northeast Delhi’s Seemapuri rose to five after two more bodies were recovered on Thursday, police said.
The owner was among the two occupants of the building who were not present at the time of the tragedy, the officer added. Multiple teams are carrying out the search and rescue operation. The debris is being cleared to ascertain if more victims are trapped. Multiple teams of national disaster response force (NDRF) fire department, district administration, police, and district disaster management authority (DDMA) are involved in the search and rescue operations. At least eight cranes and earth movers have been pressed into service to break and remove the debris. The medical teams with four ambulances are also present at the site for immediately medical assistance. Apart from the Delhi Police, security personnel from Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) and civil defence volunteers are also deployed for crowd management, as scores of people have gathered in the areas around the building collapse site to assist the teams and to even watch the activities.
One woman’s age is 60 while the other woman was 35. Among the three victims whose bodies were recovered from the building collapse site on Wednesday night was 21-year-old Gulafsa, who was four months pregnant. Police said the building collapsed around 3.30pm in the cramped lanes of New Seemapuri, where locals rushed to help firefighters clear debris from the side of an Eidgah that was the only access point.
The rescue and search operations are still underway, the police said, adding one or two people are still feared to be trapped under the debris, as claimed by locals. The owner of the collapsed building, identified by his first name Anwar, is absconding and efforts are underway to nab him, a senior police officer aware of the developments said on condition of anonymity. Efforts are being made to ascertain the identity of the two women and details about the same would be shared soon, Meena said.
A pregnant woman and two children were among those killed after the four-storey building collapsed on Wednesday afternoon. Deputy commissioner of police (Shahdara) Rajendra Prasad Meena confirmed the recovery of two more bodies and said: “Both dead women were residents of the four-storey building that collapsed on Wednesday afternoon.
