10 killed as building collapses in Bhiwandi

Seven children and three others were killed and 11, including a four-year-old boy, rescued after a three-storeyed building collapsed in Maharashtra's Bhiwandi town on Monday, police said.

Around 10 persons are still feared trapped after the 43-year-old Jhilani building caved in at 3.40 am, police said, adding search operations are underway.

The dead children include a two-year-old, a civic official said.

Personnel of the Thane Disaster Response Force (TDRF) were seen pulling out the boy, Ubed Quraishi, from the debris and feeding him water.

Bhiwandi is a powerloom town around 10 km from Thane.

The building had 40 flats and around 150 persons lived in it, an official said.

A civic official told PTI that the building, located at Narpoli's Patel Compound near Dhamankar Naka, collapsed while the residents were asleep.

Teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) rushed to the spot. NDRF DG S N Pradhan said the teams were using a canine squad to search persons trapped in the debris.

A portion of the building collapsed and many occupants were trapped in the debris of the collapsed building, a Thane Municipal Corporation official said.

The building was not in the list of dilapidated structures of the Bhiwandi-Nizampur Municipal Corporation, he said.