A Delhi building collapse in Harsh Vihar triggered a multi-agency rescue operation on Sunday evening after a reportedly old, vacant single-storey structure gave way while an additional floor was being constructed above it. Authorities said there was a possibility that two workers could be trapped under the debris, but their presence had not been confirmed at the time of the initial response.
The Delhi Fire Service received information about the collapse at around 6.45 pm, according to a report by Live Hindustan citing news agency ANI. Five fire tenders were sent to the site, while teams from the National Disaster Response Force, Delhi Police, the fire department and civil defence also joined the operation.
ADCP Sandeep Lamba said the police received information about the incident at around 7 pm. He described the structure as an old single-storey building on which a second floor was being constructed. “Rescue teams are working. NDRF, local police, the fire department and civil defence teams are present at the spot,” Lamba said, according to the report.
The officer said local residents had removed a substantial amount of debris, but no rescue had been completed when the initial assessment was reported. He added that there was a possibility that some people were trapped, although this could not yet be confirmed.
The property owner, Kulwinder Tanwar, told police that the building had been vacant for a long period and that no one lived there. He reportedly lives with his family a few houses away from the site. Construction work on an additional floor had been underway above the old ground-floor structure for the past few days.
According to the owner’s account, the roof slab for the new floor had been laid on Sunday, with work continuing until around 5 pm. Most of the workers involved in the slab work had left after completing their tasks. The owner, however, expressed concern that two workers may have still been carrying out work on the ground floor when the structure collapsed.
Fire and police personnel were searching the debris and attempting to establish whether anyone remained beneath it. The number of casualties, the condition of the structure before the collapse and the cause of the failure had not been established in the initial information available. Authorities were expected to clarify the situation after debris removal and the completion of the rescue operation.
