- Akhtar Jahan's house was crushed by a collapsing adjacent building in Mumbai
- The four-storey illegal structure showed cracks and signs of imminent collapse
- Moinuddin survived as he left before the adjacent building fell on their home
Akhtar Jahan, wife of a labourer and mother of four, had an inkling. The building next to her tin-sheet house was showing clear signs of an impending collapse. Jahan and her husband Moinuddin Wajid Ali Shah had planned to shift on Sunday.
But tragedy struck on Saturday night.
Amid non-stop rain, the creaking, illegal structure next door came crashing down on the family's house in New Mandala area of Mumbai.
According to neighbours, the family had planned to vacate the house the following day after noticing that the adjoining structure had become unsafe due to continuous rainfall.
"Residents had begun vacating the buildings fearing they could collapse in the rain. Jahan was also packing to leave when tragedy struck," said a neighbour.
Moinuddin, who survived because he had stepped out shortly before the incident, told reporters that he had informed his family they would shift the next day. However, before they could leave, the adjacent building collapsed on their tin-sheet home, trapping the occupants beneath the debris.
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Residents said the four-storey structure had shown visible signs of distress hours before the collapse. Cracks had appeared, tiles had begun falling and the building had reportedly tilted, prompting the families living inside it to vacate.
While those occupants escaped, the structure fell onto neighbouring homes, causing the fatalities.
The incident occurred in Janata Nagar area of Mandala in Mankhurd after heavy rainfall lashed Mumbai.
Police have arrested the owner of the collapsed structure and the contractor who allegedly carried out the construction. A case has been registered under relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, including culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
Investigators are probing whether the building was illegally constructed and whether safety norms were ignored.
Civic officials said the collapsed building was unauthorised.
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Rescue teams from the Mumbai Fire Brigade, police, civic authorities and other emergency agencies carried out overnight operations to pull survivors and recover bodies from the debris.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced an ex gratia of Rs 5 lakh each for the families of those killed in the incident.
