Portion of three-storey building collapses in Thane's Bhiwandi; three people rescued, five feared trapped

A portion of a three-storey building collapsed in Thane’s Bhiwandi on Tuesday night, according to several media reports. ANI reported that the rescue operation has started and the authorities have managed to pull out three people from the debris, while five more are feared trapped.

#Maharashtra: Portion of a three-storey building collapses in Bhiwandi's Rasulbagh, few people suspected to be trapped. Fire brigade present at the spot. pic.twitter.com/gBJqutwYnN

— ANI (@ANI) July 24, 2018

The building, located in the Rasulbagh area of Bhiwandi, was reportedly a seven-year-old structure. A National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) team and fire brigade are also helping in the rescue operations. The incident comes on the same day when part of the ceiling of a popular shopping mall in Vashi also collapsed . The metal reinforcement and some plaster chunks fell on to the third and ground floors of the Raghuleela mall in Navi Mumbai. However, injuries or casualties were avoided since the mall was not very crowded as it was a weekday and the incident took place around 12.15 pm. The local police said part of the structure could have weakened due to rainfall, however, the exact cause of the incident has not yet been revealed. In November 2017 , a similar incident killed four people and injured several others in Bhiwandi when an unauthorised four-storey Tahir Biznor building, situated in Navi Basti area, collapsed.