Sunday 29 September 2013

Indian officials call off search for bodies in building collapse


Officials in the Indian city of Mumbai have called off their search for more bodies following the collapse of a five-storey apartment building and say the final death toll stands at 60.

Mumbai deputy police commissioner Tanaji Ghadge said all of the 93 people who had been missing were now accounted for.

"The toll has now risen to 60 and we have now called off the search for more bodies in the debris," Mr Ghadge said.

But Alok Avasthy, an official at the National Disaster Response Force, said the death toll may rise depending on whether victims in hospital succumb to their injuries.

Rescuers managed to save 33 people from the building's wreckage in the two-day search.

A male survivor in his 40s was the last to be pulled out from under the twisted iron bars and fallen concrete on Saturday afternoon.

Local officials said 22 families had been housed in the block owned by the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai in the city's eastern suburbs.

It collapsed at dawn (local time) on Friday and the cause is still being investigated, but one person has already been arrested.

The Press Trust of India news agency said the arrested man was accused of carrying out faulty and unauthorised renovation at his rented office-cum-warehouse on the ground floor of the building, which is thought to have caused the collapse.

Municipal authorities said that they would bear the cost of treating the injured and that compensation would be paid to the families of the deceased.

Sunday 29 September 2013

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-29/an-india-building-collapse-search-over/4987740

0 comments:

Post a Comment