Five persons, including four students, were killed after an under-construction building, housing a coaching centre, collapsed at Bhajanpura in the city on Saturday, fire officials said.
Atul Garg, Director of the Delhi Fire Services (DFS), said around 30 students were attending classes when the two upper floors of the four-storey building collapsed, trapping the students in debris.
“The fourth floor was under construction and did not have a roof. Thirteen people have been shifted to the nearby Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital,” he said.
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Umesh Kashyap, the owner of the building, is also among the dead.
The Fire Department received a call at 4.30 p.m., and rushed seven fire-tenders to the spot, the officials said.
Sushil Sharma, who was among the first to reach the spot after the incident, said the locals entered the building through the roof of an adjoining building and started removing the students. His twin nieces were studying at the same institute, both of Class X. They chose to study at home on Saturday.
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“My twin nieces, Palak and Payal, used to study here. Today, they were studying not at the institute but in the house of the tuition owner and escaped the death. The moment I got to know about the incident, I came here to see them. They were fine. The locals and I started the rescue before the police and the fire service.”
Arif Sultan, father of the deceased Farhan Sultan, 6, said, “My son was studying on the second floor along with 10-15 other students. My daughter, who was in Class VIII, called me up and informed me of the incident. I rushed to the spot and climbed the stair. I took out my child after one-and-a- half hour. He was not breathing. We took him to hospital where he was declared brought dead.”
The police said a team of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) also reached the spot.