A Delhi building collapse in Harsh Vihar triggered a multi-agency rescue operation on Sunday evening after a suspected two workers may have been trapped under the debris, authorities and the property owner said. The collapse involved an old, vacant single-storey building on which an additional floor was being constructed.
The Delhi Fire Service received information about the incident at around 6.45 pm, according to a report 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 were deployed for rescue and debris-removal work.
ADCP Sandeep Lamba said the police received information about the collapse at around 7 pm. He said the structure was an old single-storey building and that a second floor was being constructed above it. Rescue teams were working at the site, while local residents had also removed a significant amount of debris.
Lamba said the possibility that people were trapped could not be confirmed at that stage. “So far, no rescue has taken place. There is a possibility that some people may be trapped, but it cannot be confirmed,” he said, according to the report.
The property owner, Kulwinder Tanwar, told police that the building was located a few houses away from his residence and had remained vacant for a long period. According to the initial information provided to Hindustan, no one was living in the building when it collapsed. Construction work, however, had been underway on the structure.
Tanwar said the concrete slab for the new floor had been laid on Sunday, with the work continuing until around 5 pm. Most of the workers involved in placing the slab had reportedly left by the time of the collapse. He nevertheless expressed concern that two workers might still have been carrying out work on the ground floor and could be buried under the rubble.
The incident places attention on the risks involved when additional construction is carried out on an old structure. The available report does not establish the cause of the collapse, whether the construction had received approval, or whether the building had undergone a structural safety assessment. These questions are expected to become clearer as rescue teams remove the debris and authorities examine the site.
Police, fire officials, NDRF personnel and civil defence teams remained engaged in the operation. The number of people affected and the condition of any workers at the site were still being assessed when the report was published. Authorities were expected to establish the facts after the debris was cleared and further information became available.
