Hunt for landlord after 60 die as illegal block of flats collapses

More than 60 people were killed in India when a block of flats weakened by the weight of two extra illegal storeys collapsed.

Around another 70 were injured after the crude brick building fell down in a crowded district of New Delhi on Monday night.

Yesterday police were looking for the landlord, who had fled.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Rescue workers tore through the pile of broken bricks, twisted iron rods and concrete slabs yesterday but hope of finding more survivors was fading. It was mostly occupied by poor migrant workers and their families and was all they could afford in the city, where property prices are rocketing.

Another building next door was evacuated after its basement was also discovered flooded.

"There were so many dead bodies, there was no movement at all," said Dil Nawaz Ahmed, a 25-year-old journalist who lives nearby. He said he helped to free five injured residents, but mainly pulled out bodies. "There were many women and children."

Rescuers sawed through iron rods and shifted concrete with a bulldozer. Sniffer dogs searched for people as women crying over lost loved ones were led away.

MD Shahanawaz, a 23-year-old student, wept as his hopes for a friend who lived in the building dwindled.

"He's dead," he said. Everybody is coming out critical or dead."

Related topics: