Mumbai building crash toll mounts to 7

Mumbai, June 22: Seven people, including a minor girl, were killed and another seven injured when a four-storeyed abandoned building occupied by unauthorised dwellers crashed early Saturday, officials said.

The incident occurred around 6.30 am. when the dilapidated Piyush Building came crashing down, catching the occupants unaware, said an official of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) disaster control cell.

On Saturday, firefighters and other rescuers extricated two bodies, while 14 people were brought out alive from the rubble of the building located in the city's Dahisar east suburb.

Of the injured, five succumbed later at the BMC's Bhagwati Hospital while the condition of the remaining three is stated to be serious.

The dead have been identified as Faizan Sheikh, 22, Dharmendra Harijan, 22, Asif Shaikh, 20, an eight-year-old girl Bhagpati Lagsal, a 40-year old man called Yadav and two others, whose identity is yet to be established.

Dahisar Shiv Sena legislator Vinod Ghosalkar said the building had been evacuated two years ago after it was declared dangerous by civic authorities.

"It was due to be redeveloped. But owing to a dispute between the owner and tenants, the matter is under litigation. In the meantime, local vegetable vendors were taking shelter there," Ghosalkar told reporters.

This is the third major building crash tragedy in the Mumbai metropolitan region in the past 10 days.

An old four-storey building had collapsed at Mahim in central Mumbai June 10, killing 10 and injuring another six.

Ten people, including six children, were killed Friday when a 35-year-old three-storey building crashed in Mumbra town in Thane district, about 40 km from here.

Mumbra had witnessed the state's worst-ever building crash April 4, which killed 75 people and injured another 60.

IANS