Photo: Wasted Time R at English Wikipedia / Wikimedia Commons, public domain
At least two people were killed and several others are feared trapped after a three-storey building under construction caved in on Thursday morning in a narrow lane of the Sheesh Mahal area, close to the Chawri Bazar Metro station in Old Delhi. The Delhi Fire Services said it got the call at 9.50 am, and teams from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), the fire service, Delhi Police and the municipal bodies were still digging through the rubble in the afternoon.
What officials have said so far
According to the fire service, two people were pulled out of the debris dead, while four others had already been taken to hospital by local residents before rescue crews arrived. The injured were taken to Lok Nayak hospital. A fire official said at least six units, including water tenders and rescue vehicles, had been sent to the spot, and that as many as 15 people were feared to be under the debris. The identities of the dead have not yet been made public.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central) Rohit Rajbir Singh said the structure gave way while a concrete slab was being poured on the upper floor. He said 10 to 15 labourers were at the site at the time, possibly more, and that some of them were caught as workers were being pulled back when the building began to give way. Residents of nearby houses have been moved out, and an adjoining building is also in a precarious state, he said.
Police say the work was unauthorised
The DCP said the construction was unauthorised and that police had already written to the municipal agencies about it, but the work had not been stopped. The builders have been identified and police are looking for them, he added.
We were following up on it, but the work had not been stopped yet.
Rohit Rajbir Singh, DCP (Central), Delhi Police
Local residents said the building had been going up for about two to four months and that several floors had already been cast. The area’s Aam Aadmi Party councillor, Rafia Mahi, blamed what she called a “builder mafia” working through the municipal zone. Rescuers have had to work in tight, congested lanes, and the collapse came during the Diwali shopping rush, when the wholesale markets of Chawri Bazar and Chandni Chowk draw huge crowds.
A familiar pattern in the Capital
The collapse is the latest in a string of building disasters in Delhi this year. A five-storey residential building in Satya Niketan came down on September 6, killing at least seven people, and four people, including two children, died when a building collapsed in Seemapuri last month. In Saidulajab, six people were killed on May 30 when an unauthorised building fell.
A magisterial inquiry into the Saidulajab collapse found that the Municipal Corporation of Delhi had booked the building for violations but never followed through, despite police alerting it in March, and called the disaster preventable. It recommended mandatory structural safety audits, risk mapping of vulnerable buildings and digital monitoring so that violations are acted on, not just recorded.
What happens next
The immediate priority is to reach anyone still under the rubble, with the unstable neighbouring building posing an added risk. Police have said they are tracing the builders, and questions are likely over why the construction continued after civic agencies were alerted. The death toll could change as the search goes on.
