BHIWANDI: One dead and four to five persons are feared trapped after a big portion of ground-plus-four building, which had earlier been declared dangerous by the Bhiwandi Nizampur City Municipal Corporation (BNCMC), collapsed in Bhiwandi on Friday.The deceased has been as Shamim, whose body was recovered at around 6.45am.According to preliminary information, the building came crashing down while repair work was underway.Local residents claimed that the persons feared trapped are labourers who were carrying out repair work inside the structure when it suddenly collapsed, leaving them buried under the debris.According to the administration, the repair work was being carried out at night, and the labourers were inside the building when it collapsed.Soon after the incident, personnel from the Bhiwandi Fire Brigade launched a rescue operation.Teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) also joined the operation and are using heavy equipment to remove the debris and search for those trapped.BJP MLA Mahesh Choughule, who visited the spot, said the building had become old and structurally unsafe and had been declared dangerous by the civic body.He said the BNCMC had issued notices to vacate the building on four to five occasions, following which most residents shifted out. However, a few families were still living in the building.Officials said some occupants managed to escape after the structure began collapsing. However, the exact number of people trapped under the debris is yet to be ascertained.The administration suspects that four to five persons may still be trapped, and rescue operations are continuing.Further details are awaited as the rescue operation progresses.
