Tragedy struck Delhi’s Mustafabad area in the early hours of Saturday when a four-storey building collapsed, leaving four people dead and several others feared trapped beneath the debris. The incident, which occurred around 3 am, was captured on a nearby CCTV camera and has since prompted a large-scale rescue operation.
Teams from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Delhi Fire Service, and local police rushed to the site soon after receiving a distress call at 2:50 am, according to officials.
"We received a call regarding a house collapse around 2:50 am. When we arrived, the entire building had collapsed and multiple people were trapped," said Rajendra Atwal, Divisional Fire Officer. He added that rescue efforts were ongoing in coordination with the NDRF.
Additional DCP (North East) Sandeep Lamba confirmed that 14 people had been rescued, but four succumbed to their injuries. “It was a four-storey building. The incident happened around 3 am. About 8-10 people are still feared to be under the rubble,” Lamba told reporters, as quoted by ANI.
According to eyewitness accounts, several members of a single family were residing in the building at the time of the collapse. “Two men and two daughters-in-law were staying in the house. The eldest daughter-in-law has three children, and the second one also has three… we don’t know where they are now. They are nowhere to be seen,” a relative told ANI, visibly shaken.
The incident comes just hours after Delhi was hit by heavy rains and thunderstorms late Friday night. Though the exact cause of the collapse is still under investigation, preliminary suspicion points to possible weather-related structural damage.
