Mumbai hoarding crash: Death toll rises to 16 as two more bodies recovered

The death toll in the Ghatkopar hoarding collapse in Mumbai rose to 16 on Thursday, 16 May, with rescue personnel retrieving two bodies from a car stuck underneath the structure, an NDRF official said.

The bodies of a male and a female were found in a highly decomposed state and have been identified as Manoj Chansoria, 60, and Anita Chansoria, 59.

"Two bodies were retrieved from the car struck below the hoarding in Chheda Nagar area shortly after midnight," the official said.

The rescue work is still underway at the Chheda Nagar area for the fourth day after the giant 120 x 120-foot hoarding collapsed. The rescue operation on Wednesday also led to the recovery of several vehicles buried under the debris, raising fears of more casualties.

The incident sent shockwaves in Mumbai which is dotted by 1025 big and small hoardings, besides many others on railways properties.

The BMC has started yanking off all illegal or oversized hoardings violating the permissible size of 40x40 feet (1600 sq feet).

The civic body has also slapped notices to the central railway and western railway to identify and remove all illegal hoardings on its properties immediately.

On 15 May, a senior NDRF official said five interconnected girders of the hoarding were being cut into pieces one by one.

"Once the third girder is removed, we will be able to access the area which has been inaccessible so far," he said, adding that only after that they will be able to state how many more people are trapped underneath.

"These girders are so heavy that even cranes with 500 metric ton capacity failed to lift a single girder," he said.

Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in its release issued on Wednesday said due to the storage of flammable materials like fuel and gas at the petrol pump, the rescue teams have to be extra careful to avoid fire incidents.