Delhi building collapse death toll rises to six as search continues

The death toll from a building collapse in the Satya Niketan neighborhood near Delhi University's South Campus rose to six on Monday after one of the people pulled from the rubble overnight died of injuries, according to local officials. Rescue crews were still working through mounds of concrete and twisted rebar more than 24 hours after the structure caved in, with as many as 20 to 25 people feared still trapped.

The four-story building, roughly 50 years old and used as a paying-guest hostel housing mostly male students attending nearby colleges, collapsed around 1:30 p.m. Sunday while renovation work was underway on its ground floor. Officials said 11 people had been rescued alive as of Monday, while Deccan Herald reported that teams from the Delhi Fire Service, the National Disaster Response Force and the Delhi Disaster Management Authority remained on site through the night using thermal equipment and sniffer dogs to search for survivors. The All India Institute of Medical Sciences trauma center said several of those brought in from the site arrived dead on arrival, while others admitted with injuries remained under treatment Monday.

Weakened by monsoon water, residents say

Neighbors and former tenants told local reporters they had raised concerns for months that water pooling in the building's basement during this year's heavy monsoon had weakened its foundation, a theory investigators are now examining alongside the renovation work as a possible trigger for the collapse. Delhi Police registered a case against the building's owner, identified as Hariram, and named associates on charges including culpable homicide not amounting to murder, criminal negligence and endangering public safety, telling reporters the roughly 40-to-50-year-old structure was undergoing basement repair work when it gave way. Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta visited the site Sunday evening and ordered a magisterial inquiry into how the collapse occurred and whether building-safety violations had gone unaddressed.

A recurring hazard near the capital's colleges

Satya Niketan and the surrounding neighborhoods around Delhi University's South Campus are densely packed with aging, informally converted buildings that house thousands of students each year, many of them from outside the capital who rely on cheap paying-guest accommodations rather than university housing. Building-safety advocates in Delhi have for years warned that unauthorized floor additions and unregulated renovations in such structures put tenants at serious risk, warnings that have gained new urgency now that families of the missing have converged on the site awaiting word of relatives still unaccounted for.

Rescue crews worked through the night under floodlights, using cranes to lift slabs of fallen concrete while sniffer dogs and listening equipment were deployed to locate signs of life beneath the debris. Classes at several nearby colleges were disrupted Monday as students and staff gathered near the site seeking information about missing roommates and neighbors, and local authorities set up a help desk to coordinate information between hospitals, police and anxious families. Officials said the search for survivors would continue through Monday night, with the toll expected to rise further as crews reach sections of the building that remained inaccessible.