Mumbai building collapse: death toll rises to 10
The death toll from an apartment block collapse in central Mumbai has risen to 10, police said on Wednesday, as they ended nearly two days of search and rescue operations.
The death toll from an apartment block collapse in central Mumbai has risen to 10, police said on Wednesday, as they ended nearly two days of search and rescue operations.
A section of the five-storey Altaf Manzil building collapsed late on Monday, followed by the cave-in of another part of the structure.
"The number of dead from the accident is 10 and five were injured in the collapse," a police inspector in the Mumbai neighbourhood of Mahim, where the collapse occurred, told AFP.
The inspector said rescue operations had been called off as there was little possibility of more people being trapped under the rubble.
Police searched for survivors at the site -- located near a famous Muslim shrine -- for nearly 30 hours after the incident, amid heavy monsoon rains.
The accident came two months after a seven-storey building collapsed on Mumbai's outskirts, killing 74 people.
Two builders and seven others were arrested in connection with that tragedy.
The building collapses have highlighted widespread shoddy construction standards in the country, where huge demand for housing and pervasive corruption often result in cost-cutting and a lack of safety inspections.