An under-construction building collapsed in Delhi’s Paharganj area on Saturday, leaving three people dead. Rescue teams are conducting search and rescue operations at the site.
Officials said that at Ara Kansa Road near Krishna Hotel in Paharganj, the side wall of an under-construction basement collapsed. Four fire tenders were immediately sent to the site.
They also added that three people were initially trapped and rescued, but all three were later declared dead.
The incident took place on a day when strong winds and a dust storm swept across parts of Delhi and neighboring cities like Noida and Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, following similar weather conditions in the region the previous day.
Duststorm, rain hit Delhi-NCR
Trees were uprooted and fell on vehicles in Noida. The Rapid Rail Metro shed at Ashok Nagar station also suffered damage due to the storm.
A traffic light pole toppled at Noida’s DM Chowk amid heavy rain and strong winds, while in Delhi’s Connaught Place, a tree was uprooted and fell on vehicles near PVR Plaza-CP during Saturday’s storms.
The IMD had predicted thunderstorms with rain for Delhi on Saturday, with the maximum temperature expected to hover around 42 degrees Celsius.
Earlier on Friday evening, a building on Arakashan Road in Delhi collapsed. Officials said that the fire department received a call about the incident at 6.05 pm.
In April this year, eleven people, including eight members of the family of a 2020 Delhi riots victim, died when a four-storey residential building collapsed in Mustafabad area of northeast Delhi. The deceased included three children.
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) had said the building was around 20 years old and had been built without authorisation.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had expressed condolences to the bereaved families and announced an ex-gratia of ₹2 lakh from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF) for the next of kin of each deceased.
He had also said in a post on X that ₹50,000 would be given to each of the injured.
