THANE: Two more bodies were recovered on Monday from the debris of a two-storey building which collapsed in Bhiwandi town of Maharashtra’s Thane district, raising the death toll to eight, officials said.
The work on clearing the debris was under way for the third day, they said.
The building, which housed godowns on the ground and first floors and four families on the top floor, collapsed at 1.45 pm on Saturday at Wardhaman Compound in Valpada of Mankoli area.
Till Sunday, six bodies were found from the debris.
The bodies of two more persons, identified as Dinesh Tiwari (34) and Ashok Kumar Mishra (32), were recovered between 6 am and 7 am on Monday in a joint operation by teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the Thane Disaster Response Force (TDRF), Bhiwandi tehsildar Adik Patil.
Thane Municipal Corporation’s Regional Disaster Management Cell chief Avinash Sawant said the rescue operation and work to clear the debris was still on.
The building belonged to a popular food products company, he said.
Bhiwandi sub-divisional officer Amit Sanap said rescuers were proceeding cautiously as they have to take into account the possibility of survivors still remaining trapped and also have to ensure that bodies are not damaged due to the machinery being used.
The two bodies recovered in the morning have been sent to a government hospital for post-mortem, he said.
The building’s owner, Indrapal Patil, was arrested on Sunday and booked on charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, officials said.