NEW DELHI – Rescuers found one dead body and pulled out nearly 60 survivors from a collapsed residential building in central India, an official said Tuesday.
Workers were still looking for more than 20 people feared trapped in the rubble of the five-story building that collapsed Monday evening, senior official Nidhi Chaudhari said. It occurred in Mahad, about 170 kilometers (105 miles) from India’s financial capital of Mumbai in the central state of Maharashtra.
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Dozens of rescuers from the National Disaster Relief Force worked overnight with tools to pry apart the debris, Chaudhari said. Some of the grievously injured extracted from the wreckage were hospitalized, she said.
The building had more than 40 apartments and authorities are yet to ascertain the cause of the collapse. Chaudhari said an investigation was ordered.
A video shared on social media late Monday showed a group of men on top of the collapsed building removing debris by hand while dozens of onlookers watched.
India’s Home Minister Amit Shah tweeted that the collapse was tragic and that he was “praying for everyone’s safety.”
Building collapses are common in India during the June-September monsoon season, when heavy rains weaken the foundations of structures that are poorly constructed.