Residents of Ambedkar Nagar said the bodies that were pulled out of the debris on Wednesday were found by children who were digging through the rubble. Nanarao Abenkar (59), a resident of the locality, said, “Some of our children found the bodies in the rubble. We soon alerted the police and they pulled them out.”
While rescue teams are working round the clock to clear the debris and find more bodies, the police are making inquiries with local residents to assess how many residents are still missing. Locals said the police and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) could not find any more bodies despite deploying sniffer dogs.
Urmila Mane, a resident of the area, said, “I saw our houses wash away like matchboxes. I don’t know how many more bodies are there stuck under the debris, but I am sure that the death toll is much higher than what is being declared right now.”
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Civic officials said the number of injured had gone up to 121, with 72 admitted to various hospitals and 23 discharged, on Wednesday. Meanwhile, authorities have started demolishing the wall which runs up to 1.6 km. Police Inspector K. Dhule of Malad police station said, “The area is such that getting an excavator or an ambulance is very difficult. We are trying our best despite the challenges.”
MLC Vidya Chavan, who visited the site, said, “The only department to be blamed for such a massive loss is the forest department and its officials.”