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At least five persons were killed and 25 injured on Tuesday night when a 70-year old three- storeyed building collapsed near Old Delhi's Jama Masjid, prompting Municipal Corporation of Delhi to initiate an inquiry into the incident and on dilapidated structures in the area.
The building collapse, which was reported from Chandni Mahal area at around 8 pm, came as a stark reminder to last November's building collapse in east Delhi's Laxmi Nagar which claimed over 70 lives.
Police said five persons including four women were brought dead to Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narain Hospital while 25 others who suffered head and limb injuries are undergoing treatment.
A senior fire brigade official said first an under-construction building collapsed which had an impact on the multi-storeyed building leading to its collapse.
However, some locals claimed that the occupants of the ill-fated building were fixing a door when the incident took place.
They claimed that while the work was on, the beam which was supporting the building collapsed, leading to the tragedy.
The locality where the incident took place is dotted with similar "old and dangerous" buildings.
Narrow lanes leading to the disaster site has affected the pace of rescue work as people found it difficult to reach the site.
Yogender Chandolia, chairman of the civic body's standing committee, said MCD Commissioner K S Mehra has been asked to enquire into the incident and submit a report in Wednesday's standing committee meeting.
Chandolia said there were several old and dilapidated buildings in the area. Rescue workers worked hard to remove the debris in order to locate survivors. A large number of locals gathered at the spot and helped in rescue work.
Fearing that nearby buildings may get affected, police evacuated people residing in them.
Mediapersons, who had occupied the rooftops of nearby buildings, were also asked move out of the place.
Construction workers are being ropped in to break the portions of concrete and extricate trapped people, a senior police official said.
Teams of National Disaster Response Force, Delhi Police, Fire Brigade and Delhi Disaster Management Authority were helping in the rescue work, the official said.
Locals also claimed that in one of the buildings, the owner was adding another floor to the existing one and it led to the collapse.
Describing the incident as "unfortunate" Delhi Mayor Rajni Abbi said she will announce a formal inquiry into the matter on Wednesday and bring up the matter in the standing committee meeting.
She said MCD officials have told her that collapse seems to have occurred because of construction in a nearby building which may have collapsed itself first leading to the razing of the second one.
"Officials have told me that only after examining the area, MCD will get some idea of what triggered the collapse and how it can be prevented in future," she said.