Ebun Olowu
The death toll from a five-story apartment building collapse in the Indian state of Maharashtra has risen to 12. The building collapsed at about 6:30 p.m. on Monday, August 24 2020.
Four people remain missing and are presumed still trapped, Anupam Srivastava, head of India’s National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) Maharashtra unit said on Tuesday.
A four-year-old boy was rescued alive from the scene on Tuesday, according to Srivastava.
The third, fourth and fifth floors were all “completely collapsed,” according to Srivastava, but officials are hopeful that air pockets in the parking lot and on the first floor have allowed people to survive.
About 70 of the 97 residents managed to escape. Eight were rescued by the NDRF, of which one man later succumbed to a heart attack.
State and Federal first responders used specially trained dogs to help dig through the remains of the structure, which is located in Raigad district’s Mahad city, about 150 kilometers (93 miles) south of Mumbai.
The rescue operation will resume at daylight on Wednesday.
