New Delhi: A four-storey building, which had been declared dangerous, collapsed early on Tuesday at Punjabi Basti in Sabzi Mandi. There were no casualties since its occupants had already been evacuated. In the process, however, other buildings in the vicinity were damaged, leaving their occupants to find refuge in a gurdwara.Delhi Fire Service, National Disaster Response Force and Delhi Police rescued 22 people trapped in these buildings. Raja Banthia, DCP (North), said that the building which crashed down was unoccupied. Local police had alerted the Municipal Corporation of Delhi about its dilapidated condition.MCD officials confirmed that the structure was old and had been declared dangerous. The occupants of the building were evacuated on Aug 22-23.Residents of the area said they were worried about the state of the building for a long time. It collapsed around 2.50am, with the police control room alerting the local police about it around 3am. Meet Singh, 19, was certain that the structure’s foundation was unstable. “In 2009, it had only one floor. More floors were added over time, but at all times it was supported by just a single pillar.” Other locals claimed that no repairs had even been carried out due to the differences among the occupants.The crash led to panic in the area. People recalled a night of terror when they were woken up by a deafening crash followed by choking dust. With adjacent buildings affected by the collapse, the displaced people have sought refuge in a gurdwara located just steps from their homes.Maninder Kaur, 25, who lived with her family in an adjacent building, sat on a carpet at the gurdwara, recalling the chaos. “I fumbled for a flashlight in the cloud of dust. We couldn’t breathe. All we could think of was surviving this nightmare.” Her grandmother, Manjeet Kaur, was trapped in a room. “She thought we had all died,” Maninder said. Having lived there for five decades, 80-year-old Manjeet looked at the ruins in disbelief. “This is the only home I’ve ever known. Where will we go now?”The building also came down on dozens of vehicles, including a new motorcycle belonging to Maninder’s cousin, a bike-cab driver visiting with his family. “That bike was his livelihood,” said Jaspreet Singh, Maninder’s 20-year-old brother.Among those displaced is 47-year-old Rajinder Kaur. “I couldn’t see my neighbours; we feared for everyone’s safety,” she said, remembering the screams they heard amid the dust. In the ensuing panic, families banged on doors and called out names, desperate to locate their loved ones. Residents helped each other escape, using ladders to climb through narrow windows. The elderly faced the greatest challenge. Manjeet was carefully lifted through a small opening even as her family feared the walls might collapse on them.
