Three labourers killed as slab of 23-storey building crashes in Mumbai

Mumbai, Sep 5 : At least three labourers were killed and another three hurt when a slab on the 20th floor of an under construction building crashed here on Thursday, the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation's Disaster Control said.

The incident -- second of its kind in two days -- happened around noon when the workers were going about their normal duties on the 20th floor of the upcoming 23-storey Slum Rehabilitation Authority's building intended for market sale.

The tragedy occurred in the Navjeevan Building in Malad east suburb of north-west Mumbai, trapping the labourers.

Shortly after the crash, the Mumbai Police, Mumbai Fire Brigade and other agencies rushed to the site to carry out a rescue operation, and the civic agencies have initiated a probe to determine the causes.

They managed to retrieve three bodies from the rubble, and three more who were seriously injured in the crash, and rushed to the nearby M.W. Desai Municipal Hospital in nearby Govind Nagar.

The three who were brought dead have been identified as Gopal B. Modi, 32; Sohan J. Rotha, 26, and Vinod K. Sadar, 26, said the BMC Disaster Control.

The injured include Jalil R. Shaikh, 45, admitted to the orthopaedic ward with multiple bone injuries, Rupsan B. Mamin, 30, currently in the ICU and his condition is stable, while another critical worker, Mohammad S. Shaikh, 30, was later shifted to the RN Cooper Hospital in Juhu for further treatment.

In a similar incident on Wednesday, a minor child was killed, and a woman seriously injured when a two-storey residential building crashed in Chembur suburb of north-east Mumbai.

Both the tragedies in the country's commercial capital occurred when the monsoon rains had taken a respite but has revived vigorously in most parts of the city since Wednesday night.