Rescuers and rescue dogs on Tuesday August 25 searched the rubble in search of survivors of the collapse of an apartment building in western India, where up to 70 people are missing.
Read also: India: at least 70 people could be trapped in the collapse of a building
The accident occurred Monday evening in the town of Mahad, located 120 kilometers south of Mumbai. Three rescue teams were on the job all night, busying themselves in the pile of sheets, metals and bricks.
The causes of the accident were not immediately established, but collapses of buildings are common in India during the monsoon season (June to September). Torrential rains undermine the foundations of buildings and weaken them. Only one body has so far been lifted from the rubble, but official estimates range from 20 to 70 people missing. Some of the inhabitants of the 47 apartments managed to flee the building at the last minute.
Residents had already left the city
Mustafa Chafekar, a resident in quarantine because positive for the coronavirus, and his family at first believed in an earthquake and rushed out. “ We immediately started running (...) Everything collapsed before our eyes, ” the 39-year-old man told the Mumbai Mirror newspaper. According to him, residents had complained about the condition of the building to builders.
Many of the building's residents were also off the scene as they had left the city to escape the coronavirus pandemic. " Many families were not in the building because they returned to their home area due to the lockdown, " Nidhi Choudhari, a district official, told Press Trust of India. The building was ten years old and had been erected on " weak " foundations , Mahad ex-elected official Manik Motiram Jagtap reported on TV9 Marathi, adding: " it has collapsed like a house of cards. It is a frightening situation ”.
The monsoon plays a major role in South Asia for agriculture. But it also causes many deaths and large-scale destruction, including flooding and building collapses. In 2020, the monsoon has already claimed the lives of some 1,300 people in the subcontinent, including more than 800 in India alone.