Portion of mosque collapses in Old Delhi after crack in wall, no injuries
Around 1 pm, police received information that a wall of the mosque had developed a major crack.
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As per officials, the area was vacated after cracks developed on the mosque’s wall. (Express Photo by Amit Mehra)A mosque in the Churiwalan area of Old Delhi partially collapsed on Monday, hours after a crack was noticed in the wall.
According to officials of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), the area had been vacated and barricaded after cracks developed.
In videos of the collapse that emerged online, bystanders along with policemen were seen standing and pointing toward the building. In minutes, the building came crashing, emitting a plume of dust even as the people ran for cover.
Around 1 pm, police received information that a wall of the mosque had developed a major crack. Police personnel were deployed to cordon the area.
DCP (Central) Harsh Vardhan said, “Police staff were rushed to the spot and the mosque and three surrounding buildings were evacuated. MCD, BSES, and Disaster Management Authority were also informed.” At 1.55 pm, the building partly collapsed, however, no one was injured due to the timely evacuation action taken by police, said the DCP.
Deputy Mayor Aaley Iqbal visited the site and said in a post on X (formerly Twitter), “Today, an accident occurred in the marble mosque of Chudiwalaan due to the weak foundation. Thank God there was no loss of life. The dangerous parts of the mosque will be repaired soon and debris will be removed. The mosque committee will renovate the mosque.”
“The mosque collapsed due to its weak foundation. There is no case of road subsidence… No casualty took place at the site. Barricading was done beforehand…,” an MCD official told The Indian Express.
AAP’s Sita Ram Bazar councillor, Rafia Mahir, said, “We learnt the mosque started caving in at 11 am. We called BSES, MCD, Delhi Police to come and vacate the area; 5-6 multi-storey buildings near the mosque were vacated… we had gotten the area’s sewer changed, work on which had been completed in January. No other construction activity has taken place in the lane since then.”
Meanwhile, Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor alleged the incident was a result of the callousness of Delhi Mayor Shelly Oberoi and said he had written to her and the MCD Commissioner two weeks back, “demanding an immediate survey of dangerous buildings and remedial steps”.
MCD officials responded: “The dangerous building survey is in its final leg, it’ll be done in 20-25 days.”
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