India building collapse: rescuers pull boy, 4, from rubble as search for survivors continues

Name: At least 1 dead, 60 rescued as search for victims continues after building collapse in India
Uploaded: 2020-08-24T21:30:10.000Z
Duration: 1 min 50 s
Description: At least 1 dead, 60 rescued as search for victims continues after building collapse in India

At least 70 people were buried when the block of flats in Mahad, south of Mumbai, collapsed ‘like a house of cards’

Many residents had fled the town to escape the coronavirus pandemic. Building collapses are common during India’s June-September monsoon

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Rescuers carry a four-year-old boy from the rubble of a collapsed five-storey building in Mahad in Raigad district in the western state of Maharashtra, India. Photo: Reuters

Agence France-Presse

Published: 5:30am, 25 Aug 2020Updated: 9:53pm, 25 Aug 2020

Rescuers in India pulled a four-year-old boy from the rubble of a collapsed building to loud cheers on Tuesday, hours after the five-storey block of flats came down “like a house of cards”, burying up to 70 people.

The accident late on Monday in the western town of Mahad, south of Mumbai, led three disaster-response teams and sniffer dogs to work through the night, combing tin sheets, twisted metal and broken bricks.

Officials said many residents of the 47 flats inside the building were spared because they had already fled the town to escape the coronavirus pandemic.

The cause of the accident was not immediately clear but building collapses are common during India’s June-September monsoon, with old and rickety structures buckling after days of non-stop rain.

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At least 1 dead, 60 rescued as search for victims continues after building collapse in India

National Disaster Response Force spokesman Sachidanand Gawde told reporters that emergency workers had so far retrieved the bodies of two victims in addition to the little boy who survived the collapse.