Standing on the terrace of his neighbour’s house on Thursday afternoon, Lalit Gujjar said he vividly remembered how the ominous day started, how his house shook, the thunderous sound of the building collapsing and the cloud of dust that enveloped the area as he and others rushed out of their homes under the safety of the open sky.

Gujjar’s house, which is adjacent to the three-storey building that collapsed in Ullawas village on Thursday morning killing at least seven people, was evacuated as it developed deep cracks.

“I woke up to a loud sound; our house was shaking. I ran out to the balcony and through the cloud of dust, I could see that the building next door had collapsed,” said the 22-year-old who lives with his father, mother and uncle, all of whom ran out to help. “We searched the area to see if anyone was alive. We even called out “koi hai” (is anyone there), but no one answered.”

Another neighbour Baljeet Singh, 56, said, “I thought the power cable must have burst. But when I ran out I saw that a building had collapsed. There were around 20-25 people on the street at that time. Within a few minutes, the crowd swelled and there were about 100 people.”

As villagers gathered to check for survivors and called the police, neighbours saw a panicked Daya Ram, the house owner first running towards the building and then away from it.

“I was awake when the building collapsed. When I came out, I saw Daya Ram running towards the building in his kurta-pyjama yelling “building gir gayi” (the building has collapsed). In less than a minute, he ran back in the other direction,” said Veer Singh, 46, who lives about 50 metres from the site of the building collapse.

All through the day on Thursday, hundreds of people stood on their rooftops watching the rescuers toil and an even larger number were waiting in the lane leading to the collapse site.

First Published: Jan 25, 2019 12:40 IST