Mumbai: Efforts by rescue workers and a team of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) in the congested Pimpripada area of north Mumbai to get a 14-year-old girl out of the debris proved futile, as she could not be pulled out alive.
The girl, Sanika Surve, was crying for help during the rescue operation. On duty doctor said that the medical team tried their best but couldn’t save her. “Her legs were stuck in the debris, so it took a long time to rescue her. We tried our best to bring her up alive but could not,” the doctor said.
She was brought out of the debris in the afternoon, almost 12 hours after she was trapped beneath it. An NDRF rescue worker said, “Sanika had been crying for help and asking for water.”
“This girl Sanchita had been crying for help since 2 am,” the worker, a local resident, said. “Mujhe bahar nikalo,” (pull me out) had been her repeated plea, the NDRF member said.
The girl’s cry for help from under the debris set off a massive rescue effort. Sanika’s faint voice could be heard calling out for water to drink. Efforts were made to cut a small section of the wall and clear a path for the girl to escape,” NDRF deputy commandant Mahesh Nalawade said.
At the scene of the tragedy, Suresh Dhuri, a resident and an eyewitness said when the wall collapsed, a massive thud was heard as if some kind of natural calamity has hit. “Water was accumulating after it began raining heavily several hours ago. It created massive pressure on the wall. It came down like a tsunami and the gushing waters threw aside everything that came its way,” Mr Dhuri recalled.
