New Delhi: Rescue operations continued yesterday at the site of the collapsed five-storey building in east Delhi to search for the 20 people still feared buried under the debris, officials said.
Officials said no more bodies have been recovered since Tuesday night and the toll still stands at 66. However, the number of injured has increased from 74 to 82 and more people were trapped in the rubble of the building that collapsed Monday night.
"Eighty-two people are injured. Rescue operations are going on in the area," Joint Commissioner of Police (New Delhi) Dharmender Kumar told IANS.
"We have taken our workers out. Only machines are active at the site now," Gulshan Rai Insan, from a volunteer group involved in the rescue work, told AFP.
"From last night we were only finding broken furniture and household goods. We weren't pulling out dead bodies. Now there is no hope of finding survivors." The owner of the unauthorised building, Amrit Singh, who had been absconding since the tragedy was arrested on Tuesday night and will be produced in court.
Remand request
Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (east) IB Rani said: "We are questioning him and trying to find out various aspects. We are thinking of asking for a day's remand."
Said to be involved in criminal cases earlier, a case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder under Indian Penal Code section 304 has been registered against Amrit Singh, a police official said.
The building, inhabited by poor migrant families from Bihar and West Bengal and located in congested Lalita Park locality near the Yamuna river in east Delhi, collapsed around 8.15pm (IST) on Monday.
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) yesterday ordered the immediate evacuation of 38 buildings near the site of the collapsed five-storey building in east Delhi.
"The civic agency has served a 24-hour vacation notice to 38 buildings for water in the basement in Lalita Park locality," said Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) spokesperson Deep Mathur.
These buildings are close to the collapsed building in Lalita Park locality near the Yamuna river in east Delhi.
The civic agency on Tuesday said the basement of the collapsed building was flooded and this could be the primary reason for the collapse.
