Officials said four dead bodies were found from the wreckage of a two-story old building that collapsed on Monday afternoon in Gujarat's Junagadh city, and a search and rescue effort to find other persons who may be trapped is underway, news agency ANI reported. The building on Datar Road fell at 1pm, two days after the city saw torrential rains that caused widespread flooding.
Speaking about the incident, Junagadh Collector Anil Ranavasiya stated: "At around 1:10 pm, I got a call from the disaster Control Room that there is a building collapse on Datar Road, Junagadh. We immediately pulled our NDRF teams & other resources. The rescue operation is still going on. Till now we have recovered four dead bodies and in that, a boy aged 7 years, another boy aged 13 to 14 years, and two adult males aged 35 & 52 have been sent to a civil hospital for necessary postmortem."
"So, as per the latest information, there was no person who was residing inside the building that collapsed. Municipal Corporation has already given notices to many buildings and various buildings have been vacated also. So this exercise will go on and wherever it is possible and wherever it is needed, we will definitely get those buildings vacated," he further stated.
"The incident of building collapse in Junagadh is very tragic. I express my condolences to the relatives of the deceased who lost their lives in this tragedy. I pray to God for the peace of the souls of the deceased. The state government has announced Rs. 4 lakh help to the family of the deceased," CM Bhupendra Patel tweeted in Gujarati.
According to Inspector Nirav Shah of A Division police station, the building had stores and residential units, and teams from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), fire department, and police are conducting a search and rescue operation, PTI reported.
According to Shah, the four bodies were extracted from the rubble following a five-hour struggle.
Other officials stated that bulldozers and ambulances had been sent to clear the rubble.