Dongri building collapse: Three teams of the NDRF are at the Mumbai neighbourhood
At the site where a four-storey building crashed in Mumbai's Dongri this morning, narrow lanes and a dense neighbourhood were a huge challenge for rescue workers. Ten people have died in the incident.
The building collapsed around 11.40 am, making a loud sound that one resident compared to an "earthquake". Over 40 people are feared trapped under the decades-old building that was reduced to a mass of rubble, wires and concrete.
Along with disaster response personnel and policemen, residents formed a human chain and tried to remove the debris brick by brick, lifting slabs of concrete in their search for survivors.
The constricted lanes made it difficult for the fire brigade, Mumbai police and civic officials to access the site and they were forced to park some distance away.
Visuals showed the rescuers passing down a young child pulled out of the rubble, wrapped in blankets.
Three teams of the National Disaster Response Force joined in the rescue.
Dongri building collapse: People form a human chain to bring out debris from the Mumbai neighbourhood
The area, full of dilapidated buildings, had been flooded in bouts of heavy rain in the past few weeks.
Critics and opposition politicians called it a "man-made" disaster exacerbated by corruption and lack of safety norms.
This is the second major building collapse this month.
In May, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation had identified 499 buildings as "dangerous" because they were old, rundown and violated safety rules; last year it was 619.