India Building Collapse: At Least 45 Dead

By Alex Rossi, Sky News India Correspondent

Rescuers have pulled out alive two toddlers from the wreckage of a Mumbai tower block after it collapsed leaving as many as 45 dead and 50 injured.

Most of the dead and missing are migrant construction workers who were living on the site in Thane, on the outskirts of the city, with their families.

Eleven of the dead are children.

As rescue teams combed the rubble for survivors two young children were plucked out alive to cries of "God is great".

A toddler is pulled out alive from the wreckage

Rescue workers with sledgehammers, gasoline-powered saws and hydraulic jacks struggled to break through the tower of rubble in their search for possible survivors.

More than 20 people remained missing and three floors of the building still needed to be searched, said R S Rajesh, an official with the National Disaster Response Force who was at the scene.

"All the three floors are sandwiched ... so it is very difficult for us," he said, adding that rescuers were continuing to pull survivors from the wreckage.

An investigation has now been launched into what has been described as one of the worst incidents of its kind in the western Indian state of Maharashtra.

Rescue workers search for survivors in the rubble

The collapse is being blamed on shoddy construction and unstable foundations.

The building was only supposed to be four storeys high but three extra levels had been illegally constructed on top.

Police said they have arrested the builder and his associates. They face a number of charges including manslaughter.

A local resident who gave his name as Ramlal said he could only watch as the disaster unfolded because it happened so quickly.

A crowd watches the rescuers at work

"The building collapsed like a pack of cards within three to four seconds," he said.

"Only labourers used to stay there. No rich person or well-to-do family stayed here. Only poor people stayed here."

Building collapses happen often in India.

As the economy has grown, so has the appetite for property and the quick profit that comes from unauthorised construction.

In one of the worst collapses, nearly 70 people were killed when an apartment building in a congested New Delhi neighbourhood crumpled in November 2010.

That building was two floors higher than legally allowed and its foundations appeared to have been weakened by water damage.

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