Death toll in slabs collapse incident at Maharashtra's Ulhasnagar rises to seven

MUMBAI:  As many as seven people were killed after the slab of a residential building in Ulhasnagar of Thane district in Maharashtra collapsed on Friday late night. According to officials of Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation, the incident took place at Nehru Chowk, where a slab of the five-storeyed Sai Siddhi building collapsed. At least five were injured in the incident.

The slab from the fifth floor came crashing down to the ground floor. It fell over eight-nine people who were standing below. A team of Ulhasnagar fire brigade and National Disaster Response Force reached the spot and pulled out those trapped under the debris. 

"Three women, as many number of men and one boy, died in the mishap," Santosh Kadam, chief of the Regional Disaster Management Cell of Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) said. The deceased belonged to two families residing in the building, he said. There were 29 flats in this 26-year-old building, Kadam said.

"Around 9 pm, the drawing-room slabs of five flats - right from the top floor up to the bottom one - caved in. On being alerted, the personnel of the RDMC and the Thane Disaster Response Force (TDRF) rushed to the scene and launched a search and rescue operation," he said.

The operation was called off at 12.46 am on Saturday following the recovery of the seventh body, the official said. Minister Eknath Shinde rushed to the spot to take stock of the situation.