At least 2 feared trapped as under-construction building collapses in Delhi's Harsh Vihar

At least two people were feared to be trapped under debris after an under-construction house collapsed in the Milan Garden area of north east Delhi’s Harsh Vihar on Sunday evening.

A Delhi Fire Service (DFS) official said that call regarding the collapse was received at 6.46pm, following which six fire tenders were pressed into service. Police personnel and rescue teams, including the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), rushed to the spot and began efforts to search for anyone who may have been trapped beneath the rubble. The operation was ongoing at the time of going to print.

Among the two people who are reported to be missing are the contractor and his father, said the DFS official.

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“When the teams reached the location, they found that the building’s ground floor was an old structure, while the owners were carrying out construction on the first floor,” a senior police officer said.

However, the circumstances that led to the collapse were not immediately clear, he said.

The owner of the structure has been identified and traced, and legal proceedings have been initiated, the police official said, without giving further details.

The incident comes amid a string of building collapses that have shined a spotlight on weak enforcement of building safety laws and lack of proper oversight. On October 7, at least four people died when a building collapsed in New Seemapuri with demolition work in an adjacent building, involving vibrating machines, suspected to have triggered the collapse.

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On September 6, a multi-storey boy's hostel collapsed, killing seven people, including five Delhi University students and two labourers.

Prior to that, On May 30, a building collapsed in south Delhi’s Saidulajab, killing six people, including five doctors and engineers and one eatery owner. Unauthorised construction was suspected to be the cause in both the incidents.