Delhi building collapse: Rescue op challenge — Get help from locals, but avoid crowding

As rescue operations began, the injured were rushed to Deep Chand Bandhu Hospital and Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hospital.

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DCP (northwest) Aslam Khan said that the main challenge was roping in locals to help with the rescue operations, while ensuring that a crowd doesn’t gather at the spot.

“The other buildings in the vicinity were also dangerous and we feared they might collapse as well,” said the DCP.

“We asked police personnel from 10 nearby posts to help with the rescue operation… More than 50 personnel were tasked with managing the crowd,” said Khan.

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By the time teams from the National Disaster Response Force reached the spot, most of the people had been rescued.

NDRF official Sri Nivas said that two NDRF teams, along with sniffer dogs, reached by around 11 am. By then, eight-nine people had been pulled out from the debris. “We got to work and recovered bodies that were trapped deep inside the debris. First, we saw the body of a woman, then of two children — aged between four and eight years — lying next to each other,” he said.

A senior NDRF official conducting the rescue operation, meanwhile, said even the building next to the collapsed one is dangerous, and “cracks are visible on it”. DCP Khan said residents of that building were evacuated.