Dongri building collapse death toll rises to 13

Mumbai: The death toll in the Kesarbai building collapse incident in south Mumbai’s congested Dongri area has gone up to 13 — five men, three women, four minor boys and a minor girl — while 10 people in total were injured.

Nine of the wounded were taken to the state-run JJ hospital and one was admitted to Habib Hospital. Three victims have been discharged from JJ Hospital after receiving medical treatment as they had received minor injuries.

The BMC stated that rescue operations were called off around 3.30 pm on Wednesday and the debris was cleared by the evening.

However, locals said two or three people are still missing. “There we-re around 30 people trap-ped under the debris. However, we think that two or three ground floor residents are yet to be found,” said Nadeem Shaikh, who stays two building away from the ill-fated structure.

The people present at the site also said as most of the residents of the building were tenants and not old residents, they were unknown to the residents of nearby buildings, which made it difficult to properly identify the victims who were removed from the debris.

Meanwhile, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis announced compensation of Rs 5 lakh for the kin of the deceased and Rs 50,000 for the injured.

The civic body has given temporary accommodation in Imambada civic school to those rendered homeless by the collapse and the residents of two neighbouring building, which were evacuated.

The part of the four-storey, nearly-century-old structure, came down at 11.10 pm on Tuesday. Between 10 to 15 families were staying in the building.