THREE people, including a child and a 21-year-old pregnant woman, were killed and eight injured after a building collapsed in northeast Delhi’s Seemapuri area on Wednesday, officials said. Eleven people were rescued from the debris by evening, of whom eight injured were shifted to the Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital in Tahirpur for treatment, they added. The injured were identified as Momin Mirja (56), Abdaan (three), Abdul Rehman (28), Devruddin (28), Salma (50), Chote (34), Sakina (35) and Samad (30), the officials said.

 

The deceased include a girl aged around 12 years, whose identity is yet to be ascertained, Gulafsa (21), who was approximately four months pregnant, and another child aged around a year and a half, who is yet to be identified. Authorities are suspecting that cracks that appeared in the building following tremors caused by an earthquake in Uttarakhand on Tuesday evening may have led to the incident. Locals said they could hear the voices of those trapped under the debris. The actual cause of the collapse is yet to be ascertained. According to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), neighbours claimed that cracks appeared in the structure following the earthquake and the building owner was in the process of vacating it.