Raigad Building Collapse: Child Pulled out Alive from Debris after 20 Hours as Death Toll Rises to 13

Rescue workers pulled out a toddler alive from the rubble of a building on Tuesday some 20 hours after it collapsed killing at least 13 people. His mother, however, was found dead.

The emergency services have found 76 people alive, but there are still several people unaccounted for following the disaster on Monday evening in Mahad, an industrial town about 165 km south of Mumbai.

The rescued four-year-old boy’s cries had been heard beneath the ruins of the five-storey building, which a police officer described as having come down like “a deck of cards”.

Eleven other bodies were recovered from the rubble on Tuesday, police said.

A man died of cardiac arrest on Monday night after he was hit by a stone from the falling building, said the police. The dead also include two teenagers.

As an ambulance crew rushed the child from the disaster site, distraught relatives shouted out the names of missing loved ones, while some combed through warped tin sheets, mangled metal rods and broken concrete looking for signs of life.

A woman among the survivors described how she and her three daughters fled when the building, which had contained 47 apartments and was home to around 200 people, as it began to shake.

“We had just gone a few metres from the building and we heard loud noise. Then there was smoke everywhere. The building collapsed a few seconds after we ran out,” said Shabana Lora.

Other survivors said they had first thought they were caught in an earthquake, before realising only their apartment block had come down.

Government officials said at least five people had died, while 18 of the more seriously injured were admitted to hospital.

As the search for survivors continued in the rain, rescue teams tried to remove or stabilise sections of the building in danger of a fresh collapse.

According to a police official at the site legal action had been initiated against the builder.

The cause of the disaster has not been determined, but building collapses are common, especially during the monsoon season rains, as construction is often shoddy, with builders disregarding regulations and using substandard materials.

(With inputs from agencies)