Five die as building collapses

2005-08-29 08:50

Mumbai - Five people were killed and 13 injured when a three-storey building collapsed in India's main financial city of Mumbai, police and hospital sources said on Monday.

The 60-year-old structure in the south of the city, which housed three families, collapsed without warning late on Sunday, police said.

"Five people were brought in dead," said HS Jadhav, superintendent of the city's GT Hospital. "All the injured have rib and leg fractures."

Of the injured, nine were residents of the building while four were volunteers assisting in rescue operations.

Police said rescue operations were underway but that there was only a "slim chance" anyone was still trapped under the debris.

Unprecedented

The building collapse is the third in the past week and follows large-scale flooding and unprecedented rains in Mumbai last month.

Eleven people were killed last week when a four-storey building collapsed in the city's south-central Nagpada suburb.

Local officials said that about 19 000 high-rise buildings in south Mumbai are "old and dilapidated" and unsafe for living.

Vast swathes of Mumbai were inundated in late July after the heaviest monsoon rains ever recorded in India lashed the city, claiming more than 400 lives.

Environmentalists and urban planners blamed the widespread flooding in the city on poor drainage caused by rampant unscrupulous development that blocked water exits.

- AFP