60 dead in India building collapse as search ends
Rescue workers carry a girl towards an ambulance after she was pulled out from the rubble of a building that collapsed in Mumbai, India, Friday, Sept. 27, 2013. The apartment building collapsed in India’s financial capital of Mumbai early Friday, killing people and sending rescuers racing to reach dozens of people trapped in the rubble. AP
MUMBAI, India — The search for survivors at the site of a collapsed apartment building has ended in India’s financial capital of Mumbai. An emergency response official says the final death toll is 60 people.
Rescuers managed to save 33 people from the building’s wreckage in the two-day search. By Sunday morning, Alok Awasthi, local commander of the National Disaster Response Force, said all 93 people listed as missing had been accounted for and the search was called off.
The five-story building that collapsed Friday was the third deadly cave-in of a Mumbai structure in six months. The cause is under investigation.
High demand for housing around India’s crowded cities combined with lax inspections often result in contractors cutting corners by using substandard materials or adding unauthorized floors.
