A five-storey building housing a boys’ hostel collapsed in New Delhi on Sunday, September 6, killing at least one person and trapping dozens of others under the rubble, officials said. The structure came down in Satya Niketan, a densely populated neighbourhood near a Delhi University campus.
Fire officer Abhilash Malik said roughly 30 to 40 people remained trapped in the debris. As many as 50 people are believed to have been inside the building when it collapsed, according to accounts from the scene, though authorities could not immediately confirm a precise figure.
Some of those trapped were making phone calls for help as rescuers stayed in contact with them, lawmaker Anil Sharma said. Several people had already been pulled to safety, while at least two others were hospitalised in critical condition.
Police, firefighters and teams from India’s disaster response agency worked through the site as earthmovers cleared debris to reach survivors. The Satya Niketan area is well known for its cluster of private student accommodations, many of them packed with young people renting rooms close to campus.
For the families of Delhi University students, the collapse carries an immediate human weight: dozens of the trapped are thought to be young men living far from home in cramped, informal lodging. The cause of the collapse was not immediately known.
Building failures are a recurring hazard in parts of India during the June-to-September monsoon, when heavy or prolonged rain can weaken ageing structures. The season regularly exposes gaps in construction standards and enforcement, a pattern seen in other deadly incidents across the country, including a string of structural tragedies in recent years.
That vulnerability is compounded in student districts, where demand for cheap rooms often outpaces oversight of the buildings that supply them. As rescue crews continued their search into the evening, the priority stayed on reaching those still buried and confirming exactly how many people had been inside when the walls gave way.