Delhi coaching centre deaths: ‘Rescue ops complicated by 12-foot-high, muddy water’

The only door that was an exit from the basement was locked, but NDRF personnel managed to enter the basement by breaking open a glass enclosure

National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel who were part of the search and rescue operations at Rau’s IAS Study Circle said that dirty, murky water that reached a height of 12 feet complicated their already difficult task.

Fire department officials pump out water from the coaching institute’s basement on Sunday. (Sanchit Khanna/HT Photo)

The personnel said they swam through the muddy water, lifting heavy almirahs and navigating around chairs and benches while hoping against hope that they found someone who had survived.

“At around 8.25pm, we were alerted about the flooding in the basement… Our team reached the spot by 9.05pm and saw that the basement was flooded. The students were trapped,” said Praveen Dahiya, the second in-command of the NDRF 16 battalion.

The only door that was an exit from the flooded basement was locked, but the NDRF personnel managed to enter the basement by breaking open a glass enclosure.

At first, the officials said, one NDRF diver strapped with breathing apparatus was sent in to ascertain the scale of the flooding. He returned and shared details of the challenges. The basement was long, officials said, estimating the area to be around 100 feet long and 50 feet wide. Three more divers entered the basement, while four others were kept on standby.

“Searching for the students was difficult because one, the water was dirty and had debris, secondly the almirahs inside the room had fallen, and the furniture was floating. Our senior officials from the headquarters, some of whom had come to the spot, were supervising the operation till the time it got over,” said deputy commandant Deepak Jaiswal, who was leading the 32-member team

At around 10.35pm, the NDRF had pulled out the first body from the basement, and by 1am, the third body was found. The personnel kept up the search till 3.35 am, but finally called off the operation.

“On top of dirty water, books and other obstacles made the operation challenging. Unfortunately, the three students could not be saved,” Jaiswal said.