Building collapses in Mumbai

At least seven people died and many were injured on Friday after a building collapsed in Mumbai’s Govandi area.

The two-storey building was located in plot number 3 of Shivaji Nagar in Govandi. BMC and fire brigade personnel rushed to the spot and retrieved at least four bodies from the rubble and saved the rest, even as intermittent rains hampered relief efforts. All four who died belonged to the same family.

Mumbai is being battered by heavy monsoon rains while several other parts of Maharashtra are witnessing floods.

Over 136 people have till now died due to heavy rains, flooding and landslides, after torrential rains shook Raigad, Ratnagiri and Satara districts. The Army, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard are helping with the rescue operations. Eleven people including eight Nepalese workers were rescued in the nick of time before the bus in which they were traveling was swept away in a flooded river in Western Maharashtra’s Kolhapur district on early Friday morning

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Friday predicted heavy to very heavy rainfall for Mumbai, its suburbs and other parts of Maharashtra and issued a red alert for six districts of Maharashtra – Raigad, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg in coastal Konkan and Pune, Satara and Kolhapur in Western Maharashtra.

Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray held an emergency meeting to take stock of the situation. He has announced Rs 5 lakh ex-gratia for the next of kin of those who have died in flood-related incidents in the state.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday condoled the loss of lives in a landslide in coastal Raigad district and appealed to party workers to assist in relief and rescue work. Thirty-six people were killed in a landslide near Talai village in Mahad tehsil of Raigad, police said.

(With inputs from ANI)