Six killed in Mumbai landslide

Six people died and 12 were injured in a landslide in Kasai Wada, Qureishi Nagar, in Kurla, a suburb of Mumbai, following heavy rains that have lashed the city for the last two days.

Most people were sleeping when the side of a hillock collapsed at around 5.30 am bringing down several huts that were even otherwise precariously standing on the slope.

The dead had suffered severe head injuries. Some of the injured who were taken to Rajawadi Hospital in Ghatkopar and Sion Hospital were in a critical condition.

The victims included three-year-old Shahnawaz, a 55-year-old woman and a 24-year-old man.
The fire brigade moved in quickly to rescue people trapped under the debris even as a huge boulder had rolled down near some of the houses.

Rescue workers, including local residents, worked late into the evening clearing the debris even as heavy rains hampered their work.

Many of the people living close to the site of the landslide have been evacuated.

Municipal Commissioner, K. Srivastava, visited the site and said the municipal body would prevent people from building illegal hutment in unsafe and precarious areas.

However, Kurla, with a few hillocks, is literally covered with hundreds of tiny hutment that stand dangerously on the slopes. A similar incident, though far more serious, occurred a few years ago in Ghatkopar where nearly 70 people died in a landslide.