Two killed in building collapse that 'sounded like an explosion'

It sounded as if a bomb had exploded,” said 70-year-old Anchal Chaudhary, recalling the moment the second floor of a building in Old Delhi’s Lahori Gate collapsed, killing two construction workers and injuring another on Thursday morning.

This was followed by screams of labourers as the roof collapsed on them, she said
“God forbid, if the incident had happened few minutes later, the number of casualties would have been much more, as most of the shops here had not opened,” she said.
Chaudhary lives on the first floor of the same building, and was about to go upstairs to ask the labourers to halt the construction work as the noise had become unbearable, said the asthma patient.

“As I was about to go upstairs, I heard the thump of a brick falling on the floor, followed by a series of sounds as if lot of bricks were falling simultaneously. And finally came the loud sound of an explosion. A balloon of dust entered our room,” said Chaudhary.
The sound was so loud that hundreds of people in the congested narrow lanes of Krishna Bazaar in Lahori Gate area came running.

Thick dust from debris had enveloped the entire lane, which stopped curious onlookers several metres before the collapsed building, said a local shopkeeper.

“It was hard to see what had collapsed, as everything was so unclear due to the dust,” recalled a shopkeeper.

Out of the three floors of the building, the ground and second ones are owned by Ratan Singh, a local cloth merchant who had started the construction work a week ago on the second floor.

“We have registered a case of death due to negligence. The owner of the two floors is absconding. We are tracking him,” said Madhur Verma, Deputy Commissioner of Police (North).

Singh was demolishing the second floor of the more than 70-year-old building to make a new one, said police.

During the demolition work, the ceiling collapsed on the three labourers.
One of them died on the spot while the second one succumbed to his injuries in the hospital, said police.

“Any type of construction work is not allowed in the walled city. Even for repair work we need the permission of the MCD,” said Arun Shorewala, who lives in a building opposite the collapsed one.

“But due to the height of the rooms here which is much more than the average height you will find anywhere else in Delhi, some people get tempted to make three floors out of two or two if there is only one,” Shorewala added.

More than 100 personnel belonging to National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), municipal corporation, Delhi Fire Services, and Delhi Police rushed to the site within 10-15 minutes and began the rescue mission.

The labourers were pulled out from the debris and rushed to Aruna Asaf Ali Hospital where Ramjilal, 50, was pronounced brought dead and Ram Karan, 45, succumbed to his injuries while being operated upon.

The third labourer is said to be in a stable condition at the hospital.