JOIN USA toddler died and about 20 people were injured in wall collapse incidents during the thunderstorms that lashed the national capital on Sunday night.
Many trees were uprooted and hoardings were flung in the air by gusty winds.
In Motia Khan’s Peepalwaali Gali, the outer wall of an adjoining four-storey building fell over a tin-roofed house in which a family of five was sleeping. Two-and-half-year-old Mantaza died and her four-year-old-sister Kahkashah’s leg was fractured. Four members of the family were injured.
Doctors have advised amputation for the injured girl, said neighbours. The other injured were discharged from hospital after medical treatment. The dead child’s father works at a bag-making unit.
Local residents alleged that the adjacent wall which fell on the family’s home was made of sub-standard material. “Usually the thickness of a wall here is 9 inches.
This one was only 4-inch thick,” said Ajit Kumar, an elderly neighbour.
The building, which came up in just four months, is owned by a building material trader Chhote Khan, residents said. They alleged that Khan ran a belt-making factory in the building.
“The use of machines constantly vibrates the thin walls of the building and makes its foundations shaky,” said Arun, another neighbour.
Wall collapse incidents left several people injured in Anand Parbat, Najafgarh, Naraina, Narela and Rohini.
Four people were injured in central Delhi’s Anand Parbat area when the wall of a house collapsed on sleeping people. In outer Delhi’s Narela, five people were injured in a similar mishap. In Naraina, two persons were injured when the wall of a medical store fell on Sunday night.