NEW DELHI: Three bodies were recovered after a slab of an under-construction house collapsed in northeast Delhi’s Harsh Vihar area on Sunday evening, with rescue operations underway at the site, news agency PTI reported.The incident took place around 6.45pm at a building that was originally a single-storey structure and was being expanded with another floor. A first-floor slab reportedly gave way, bringing down parts of the building.Locals initially joined the search for people feared trapped under the rubble.Five fire tenders were rushed to the spot, along with teams from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), civil defence, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), paramilitary forces and Delhi Police. Four ambulances were also deployed.The rescue operation was complicated by narrow entry and exit points in the area.“The area is completely enclosed, which initially made it difficult to even identify the exact building that collapsed,” additional DCP Sandeep Lamba said.A local said the existing roof slab was weak and a new slab was being constructed to replace it when the old one gave way, causing the new slab to collapse as well. Dilip, one of 17 labourers working at the site, said the new roof slab had just been built before the incident.Rescue personnel used mobile torches and sniffer dogs to search the debris.Visuals from the spot showed teams working through the rubble as they looked for survivors.The incident comes weeks after a residential building collapse in Seemapuri killed at least four people.In September, seven people were killed when a five-storey building collapsed in Satya Niketan after a retaining wall on the ground floor was removed to merge two shops.
