A video purportedly showing water flooding the basement of a coaching centre in Delhi's Old Rajinder Nagar has surfaced on social media after three civil services aspirants died on Saturday.
In the video, residents can be seen walking in knee deep water on the flooded road while vehicles in the area remain submerged.
As an SUV passes by, a large amount of water hits the gate of the coaching institute. The gate breaks under the pressure, allowing water to gush into the basement.
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Three civil services aspirants died before the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the Delhi police could evacuate students from the flooded basement.
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{{/usCountry}}Three civil services aspirants died before the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the Delhi police could evacuate students from the flooded basement.
Also read | UPSC aspirants death news LIVE
{{/usCountry}}According to the police, the incident happened at 6:35 pm on Saturday when rainwater suddenly filled the basement of the coaching centre. ASI Birendra reached the spot immediately and the fire department officials received a call at around 7:10 pm.
Water was immediately pumped out from the basement, but the NDRF team was called as the rescuers were in need of divers to reach the students. The body of a student was retrieved at around 10:40 pm and the second body was taken out at around 11:10 pm. The third body was found by the NDRF at around 1 am, news agency ANI reported Delhi police as saying.
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Earlier in the day, BJP Anurag Thakur blamed the AAP government in Delhi and its “Delhi model” for failing to protect the lives of students. “What have they done to Delhi? Three youths lost their lives in Delhi. Is this the model of Arvind Kejriwal and AAP? Ask the families who have lost their young ones, they sent their children to make their career but who knew that they would meet this fate,” PTI reported Thakur as saying.
Officials have said that the institute showed the building's basement as parking and storage area as per building plan submitted to get a No-Objection-Certificate (NOC) but used the basement as a library.