Seventeen persons were injured after a five-storeyed residential building collapsed in Maharashtra’s Raigad district on Monday. Around 70 people are feared trapped in the debris after the building, which was around 10 years old, collapsed at Kajalpura in Mahad tehsil around 7pm.

There were around 45 flats in the building, an official said, adding 25 persons have been rescued and shifted to a local hospital at Mahad, which is around 170 km from Mumbai. Teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have been moved to the spot for rescue operations.

Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray spoke to the district officials and asked them to expedite the rescue and relief work. A viral video of the collapse showed a plume of dust rising from where the building had stood.

Raigad district collector Nidhi Chaudhari informed that initially, only the top three floors of the 10-year-old multi-storey building had collapsed. “Initially the top three floors of the building collapsed when some people came out. We have been able to bring out 15 persons. The injured have been sent to a government hospital,” Ms Choudhari said.

Commenting on the incident, Union home minister Amit Shah said that he spoke to the Director General of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) to provide all possible assistance. The NDRF teams are on the way and will be assisting with the rescue operations as soon as possible.