Two men died and a woman was pulled out alive from the debris after a four-storey residential building that was dilapidated and declared dangerous by civic authorities collapsed in Dombivli East in Maharashtra’s Thane district on Friday.
The structure known as Adinarayan Bhuvan, situated in Ayre village within the jurisdiction of the Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation, consisted of 44 tenements. Authorities had initiated the evacuation of its occupants starting on Thursday due to structural instability, as a portion of the building had begun to sink.
At round 5:40 pm on Friday, it collapsed, and search and rescue teams pulled out the body of Sunil Birja Lodaya (55) from the debris at around 8pm, he said. At 9:15pm, 54-year-old Deepti Sunil Lodaya was pulled out alive from the debris and was rushed to a nearby hospital, TMC disaster management cell chief Yasin Tadvi told PTI.
Later, the body of a man identified as Arvind Bhatkar (70) was recovered from the debris, he said. The rescue operations are underway since one more person is feared trapped, he added. KDMC chief Bhausaheb Dangde said two persons, who are believed to be unwell, were feared trapped while all other occupants had been evacuated. The 50-year-old building was declared dangerous and a notice had been issued asking occupants to vacate. Many had vacated but some had returned to the building, Dangde told reporters.
It was an unauthorised building and tagged as a dangerous structure by the KDMC earlier, another official said. The search and rescue operation of the fire brigade and local disaster management cell was underway at the site under the supervision of Dangde and other senior officials. Another civic official at the site said there were 40 buildings in the ward that had been declared dangerous, while there were 602 such structures under various categories in KDMC limits.