Mumbai Building Collapse: Number Of Dead Rises - Sky News

The number of people killed after a five-storey apartment block collapsed in Mumbai has risen to 45 amid fears the figure could increase further.

Rescue teams have pulled out at least 33 people alive following the collapse on Friday but have struggled to find more survivors in the rubble. More than 12 are still missing.

Just one person was found alive on Saturday from under the twisted iron bars and chunks of fallen concrete.

Emergency workers worked for six hours to free the 50-year-old man who was trapped for more than 30 hours beneath the wreckage with his leg crushed by part of a wall.

Relatives wait near the site of the tragedy

Rescuers lifted up a slab of cement using a compressed air-pressure bag, and he was taken to hospital.

"We were able to save him, but he may lose his leg," rescue chief Alok Awasthi said.

Alok Avasthy, a senior official at the National Disaster Management Authority, said: "We've got 45 bodies now and that number is likely to rise though we still hope for survivors."

The cause of the collapse in the Indian city is not known, but residents in the area complained of builders using sub-standard materials.

Very little remains of the building

"There should not be corruption in the building process. They should use best of the materials - then only the buildings will last," said Sanjay Mayekar, who lives in another apartment building next to the one that fell.

It was the third deadly building collapse in the city in six months and some have expressed fears that their own buildings might also fall down.

Between 83 and 89 people were in the block, which housed workers for the city's government, when it caved in, residents said as frantic relatives held a vigil at the site.

Rudiben Parmar sat with several weeping relatives near the rubble, waiting for news of the last of five family members who were in the building.

A young child is saved from the rubble

Three of them - a nephew and two of his children - had already been found dead.

The nephew's wife was rescued, but the couple's young daughter was still unaccounted for.

Ms Parmar said she did not know who was to blame for the disaster, adding: "We will be OK once all members of our family are recovered."

At least 72 people died in April when an illegally-constructed building fell down in Mumbai.

In June, over 10 people including five children died when a three-storey structure collapsed in the city.

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