Thane building collapse: Building was dilapidated but owners refused to pay attention

“On Sunday, people from our locality kept telling us to move out of the building, as slabs were collapsing. After a day of looking around, someone from the adjacent building gave us a room. Another family from our building also moved out and thus got saved,” Yadav told The Indian Express. Huge cracks had developed near the staircase of the building as well, said resident Chandrashekar Mahaltkar, whose two daughters were injured in the collapse.

Shruti Sawant, another homemaker living in one of the nine tenements that survived the collapse said that despite the poor condition, the landlords continued to let out houses to new tenants.

Yadav said the top floors collapsed “like a lift coming down”. She said, “One moment we were shouting ‘uncle come down’ ‘bhabhi come down’ standing on the ground and the very next moment the structure gave way.” The residents who could not make it out in time were shouting that the staircase is damaged, she said. “The grill on the ground floor kept bending and finally broke after which the entire structure came crashing down. It was horrible.”