Death toll climbs to 6 as rescue continues for 2nd day in Delhi hostel collapse

The death toll in a building collapse in the Indian capital New Delhi reached six on Monday as the rescue operation entered its second day to find people trapped under the rubble, according to a hospital statement.

A building that housed a boys' paying guest hostel in New Delhi’s Satya Niketan area collapsed around noon Sunday, triggering a massive rescue operation by different teams.

On Monday, a statement by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences hospital in New Delhi confirmed six fatalities.

Narendra Bundela, a senior officer of the National Disaster Response Force, which is involved in the rescue, told reporters that "six were declared dead, and five were admitted to hospitals", while “one body is yet to be extricated”.

Read: India’s claims have 'no bearing' on Kashmir status: FO

Delhi Police said that the building was a “40- to 50-year-old building" and repair work was underway in the basement when the incident occurred.

Late on Sunday night, Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta ordered an inquiry into the incident and action against the building owner.

“Those found responsible for this grave incident will be held fully accountable and dealt with under the strictest provisions of law,” she wrote on X.

Eyewitnesses said after the incident that over a dozen people were feared to be trapped under the rubble.

Delhi Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa said on Monday that 85% of the rubble had been cleared.

“It is still not clear whether anyone else is missing. We are getting information that one of the workers may be there (trapped),” he told reporters.

Read more: Is Nepal a turning point in climate coverage?

Incidents of structural collapse have claimed scores of lives in India since the start of the year.

Earlier in July, five children were among the six killed when a building collapsed in Mumbai, India, after monsoon rains pounded India's financial capital, flooding roads and leading to school closures. The deaths came as heavy rainfall paralysed parts of the city, with the India Meteorological Department recording more than 200 millimetres of rain within 24 hours on July 7.

Before that, in April, seven people died after a 2.5-metre wall at a hospital complex collapsed in the southern Indian city of Bengaluru. The collapse killed a child and four street vendors, as well as two other people from the state of Kerala, DK Shivakumar, the deputy chief minister of the southern state of Karnataka, revealed in a statement.

Nine days before the hospital wall collapse incident, at least 11 people, including three children, were killed in New Delhi after a residential building collapsed on the outskirts of the Indian capital, local reports and authorities said.