Man killed in Pune building collapse

A new five-storey building collapsed at Narhe-Ambegaon in suburban Pune early on Friday morning, killing a 28-year-old youth who was trapped under debris.

The eight families living in the building rushed out to safety. The building, with 20 flats and a parking lot, was constructed barely a year ago.

National Disaster Response Force and fire brigade personnel recovered the body of Sandeep Mohite, who was trapped for more than 12 hours. Eyewitnesses said Sandeep, after helping other residents escape, rushed to the parking lot to salvage his four-wheeler.

“He saved everyone else, but could not make it himself. He died of suffocation,” his mother said.

“We heard a loud rumbling as if it were an earthquake. There were cracks everywhere. We rushed out in the nick of time, but lost all our belongings,” said a resident who moved in just three months ago with his family.

“The structure began crumbling at 3.05 a.m. and was reduced to rubble by 3.30 a.m. We are studying the building layout.

Prima facie , it appears to be a case of unauthorised construction,” Additional Commissioner of Police Chandrashekhar Daithankar told

The Hindu .

Police sources said the builder, Kishore Vadgama, had been taken into custody. Pune Mayor Dattatrey Dhankavade said that though the building was outside the Pune Municipal Corporation limits, an investigation would be launched into illegal structures that had mushroomed in the Narhe-Ambegaon township.