Officials from the fire and police departments said that more than a dozen people were injured in Saidulagab near Saket Metro station in south Delhi after a four-storey under-construction building collapsed and fell on a nearby canteen where students were having dinner on Saturday evening.
At least eight people were rescued from the rubble, while four to six others, including a woman who runs the kitchen canteen, were feared trapped. Search and rescue operations are still continuing at the time of publication. The rescued people who sustained injuries were shifted to the trauma center of AIIMS.
Aishwarya Singh, another CPI(M) lawmaker, said, “The people who were rescued were all alive. They were sent to the hospital for treatment. We are making efforts to rescue other trapped people.”
Delhi Fire Services (DFS) officials said that at 7:44 pm, the fire brigade received a call about a house collapse at Western Marg, Saidulagab, near Saket Metro station. Initially, three fire engines rushed with rescue teams.
“At around 8:30 pm, fire station officer Mukul Bhardwaj informed that an entire building of several floors had collapsed,” DFS divisional officer and additional spokesperson Rajinder Atwal said.
Expressing his concern, Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta stated that the situation is being closely monitored and every effort is being made to rescue those trapped and provide immediate assistance to the affected families.
Officials and local residents said that the building consists of a ground floor and three upper floors, and that construction work is underway on the upper floor. However, it was not immediately clear whether construction activities were active and workers were present when the building collapsed.
Three people had already been safely rescued before fire brigades arrived. Rescue teams of the Department of Field Support, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) and Civil Defense rescued five more injured people by around 10:50 pm. Hospital officials said at least five patients were in stable condition, and no deaths had been reported at press time.
Another police officer said that a case will be registered at Mehrauli Police Station to investigate the exact reason and also investigate whether rules in the building and land use regulations have been violated.
People who had relatives or acquaintances trapped under the rubble were seen waiting impatiently near the site.
Shah Zafar, 26, who studies at the library, said he was at the site when the building collapsed. “I was on the ground floor around 7:30pm and I heard a loud noise, and I ran up to see that the building next door was collapsing. I saw 10-15 people running outside and helped gather everyone in an empty lot nearby.”
