New Delhi, Dec 3: Four persons, including three women, were killed when a four-storeyed building in west Delhi collapsed this morning while construction activity was being undertaken to strengthen another adjoining structure.
The building located near Uttam Nagar Metro Station came down at around 11:30 AM.
A family of seven resides in the house, they said, adding officials are yet to ascertain how many were in the building when the incident took place.
Four persons, rescued from the debris, were rushed to the nearby Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital where the doctors declared three of them dead.
“Three persons, including two women, were brought dead while a man is undergoing treatment,” Praveena Goel, Deputy Medical Superintendent of DDU, told PTI.
Three of a family died in the incident. They have been identified as Rooprani (60), her daughter-in-law Richa Sharma (40) and grandson Jay Pathak (24) while Gagan Sharma (50), who is Richa's husband, suffered multiple injuries.
The fourth deceased was identified as Sarita Sharma (54) who belonged to another family.
Gagan's family lived on the ground floor of the building while Sarita belonged to another family which was living on one of the other three floors.
According to a senior police official, a nearby restuarant had extended its basement to an open space in between the ill-fated building and the hotel.
Following this, another building developed a tilt. To rectify this, the owners of that building started construction which led to the collapse.
An MCD spokesperson said the adjoining building no B-6B measuring 125 sq yard was an old structure of about one and a half storeys.
“They started digging pits for erecting pillars for fresh construction which may have resulted in the collapse of this building. No construction has been reported in the building collapsed,” he said.
