Firefighters, police personnel and locals look at the debris after a four-storey residential building collapsed in Tulsi Nagar area of Inderlok in New Delhi on Saturday
Ten people including three women and five children were killed and two others injured when a 50-year-old dilapidated four-storey building collapsed on Saturday in a congested area in north Delhi, police said.
The building was occupied by 14 persons of four different families who were residing on separate floors.
"Ten people including five children and three women have been killed in the building collapse while two persons have been injured," said Deputy Commissioner of Police (North) Madhur Verma.
Two escaped unhurt as they had left early for work, police said.
Police have registered a case of causing death by negligence against the owner of the adjacent building as it has emerged that the foundation of the building which collapsed was weakened due to the digging on his plot.
"Based on the statement of Abdul Rashid who owns the building and is also one of the injured a case under section 304A was registered at the Sarai Rohilla police station against the adjacent building owner. The owner and the contractor of the adjacent building identified as Javed is currently absconding," said Mr Verma.
An assistant engineer and a junior engineer of NDMC's Karol Bagh zone have been suspended, NDMC PRO Yogendra Singh Mann said, adding that an inquiry has been ordered into the incident in Inderlok area.
"The Commissioner has ordered an inquiry into the incident under Additional Commissioner (Engineering) of the corporation and errant civic officials in this connection will not be spared, if found guilty of any irregularity," he said.
Meanwhile, Congress and Aam Admi Party used the opportunity to hit out at the BJP-led municipal corporations over the building collapse in north Delhi and demanded that the Lt Governor should order a "probe" into the incident.
The four-storey building was built on a plinth area of 25 square yards. Locals said building number 313/4C fell down like a pack of cards around 8:40 AM.
According to fire officials, they got a call around 9 AM about a building collapsing at Tulsi Nagar in Inderlok following which four fire tenders were rushed to the spot for the rescue operations.
"We got a call about the incident at 8:55 AM. The building was around 50 years old and a number of families lived there," said Verma. He said it was an "unauthorised" building and investigations were underway in this regard.
North Delhi Mayor Yogender Chandolia said, "I believe such incidents are taking place also due to unauthorised constructions."
The incident took place in a congested locality and seems to have been caused by construction work on an adjacent plot, a fire official said.
Officials from Delhi Police, Delhi Fire Service, Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) and NDMC were pressed into rescue and relief operations soon after the collapse.
Those pulled out of the debris were rushed to Bara Hindu Rao hospital and Acharya Bhikshu Hospital.
The narrow by-lanes of the area hampered the movement of fire tenders and cranes to the spot. In its pre-monsoon survey for the first four months of the year, the NDMC had found 140 buildings in north Delhi as dangerous.
A total of 144 buildings were identified as dangerous for the period, with Sadar Paharganj zone alone accounting for 137 such structures, according to the survey report recently released by the NDMC.
While one building in Karol Bagh Zone and four in the City Zone were identified as dangerous, two structures were flagged in Rohini Zone where partial demolition has taken place, it said.