Nine dead, 20 feared trapped as a six-storey building collapses in Mumbai

Mumbai, (Daily Mail), 31 August 2017 -   Nine people are dead and 40 are feared trapped after a building collapsed in Mumbai amid floods in the city.   Rescuers used diggers as they desperately searched through the remains of the six-storey residential building which gave way around 8.40am.   The collapse, in the densely populated area of Bhendi Bazaar, comes after days of heavy rain swamped India’s financial capital.   

It was the latest deadly housing collapse to strike the teeming metropolis - shining a spotlight on poor construction standards in the Asian country - and came after heavy rains and inundations in the city killed 10 people.   A spokesman for the Mumbai civic authority’s disaster control team said earlier that three bodies had been pulled from the rubble. But that figure was later increased to nine, while rescuers estimated more than 16 had been injured and taken to hospital.  

The collapse is the second in Mumbai in a little over a month. In July, 17 people were killed when a four-storied building crumbled after undergoing suspected unauthorised renovations.

 
Police are yet to determine what caused the collapse testing the city’s rescue operations after 14 people were killed by floods from heavy monsoon rains earlier in the week.