Maha building crash toll climbs to 8

Thane: The death toll in the Bhiwandi building crash in Maharashtra’s Thane district rose to eight with two more bodies recovered from the debris, officials said here on Monday.

The two bodies were retrieved nearly 48 hours after the tragedy struck The work of clearing the debris continued for the third day, the officials said.

The ground plus three storied residential-cum-commercial building housed several godowns on the ground and first floors and at least four families on the two upper floors.

Constructed in 2014, it suddenly collapsed around 1.45 p.m. on Saturday at Wardhaman Compound of the Mankoli area on the outskirts of the powerloom town.

The officials also said that now nobody is missing in the tragedy in which another six were injured and over a dozen rescued in the first major pre-monsoon building disaster in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region area.

Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has announced an ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakhs to the kin of each deceased and full free treatment for all the injured victims.