The death toll in the building collapse in central Delhi's Hauz Qazi area has risen to seven, after rescue teams pulled another body from the rubble on Sunday, more than 70 hours after the three-storey structure came down during construction work.
The latest victim was identified as Luchhuman Mukhiya, 66, a resident of Darbhanga in the state of Bihar. His body was recovered during the continuing search at the collapsed building near Chawri Bazar and taken to Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital for further proceedings, officials said.
The building, in Gali Sitara in the Hauz Qazi area, collapsed at around 9.45am on Thursday, 5 November, while construction work was under way. It stood in one of the most crowded lanes of Old Delhi, where narrow streets and tightly packed buildings have made the rescue operation slow and difficult from the first hours.
Two bodies were recovered on the day of the collapse, and one injured person was rescued and taken to hospital. The toll has climbed steadily since then as teams worked through the debris, reaching seven by Sunday morning, with all seven of the dead now identified as Sanjeet Kumar, Kishori Sah, Pankaj Sharma, Vipin Ram, Shantu, Dinesh Sah and Luchhuman Mukhiya.
Rescue personnel from the National Disaster Response Force, Delhi Police and Delhi Fire Services have been searching the rubble since Thursday, and officials said on Sunday that they had still not ruled out the possibility of more people being trapped. The operation has now run for more than 70 hours, and the search continues around the clock.
Police have arrested four people in connection with the collapse. The building owner, identified as Saimullah, also known as Ayub, was taken into custody along with three contractors named Siraj, Tajuddin and Furkan.
A case was registered at Hauz Qazi police station on 5 November under sections 105, 290, 125(a) and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, covering culpable homicide not amounting to murder, negligent conduct in pulling down or repairing buildings, acts endangering life or personal safety, and common intention.
Police said the construction work being carried out at the site was illegal and that the building had been declared unsafe, a detail that has sharpened questions about how the work was allowed to proceed in such a congested neighbourhood. Old Delhi's Chawri Bazar area is one of the capital's oldest commercial districts, where many buildings are decades old and building regulations are widely seen as difficult to enforce.
Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta has assured that every possible effort is being made to rescue those trapped under the debris, as the operation entered its fourth day with families of the missing waiting at the site.
The incident has raised serious questions over construction safety and the enforcement of building rules in the capital's crowded old quarters. Collapses of under-construction and ageing buildings are a recurring hazard in Delhi, and each one renews calls for stricter checks on unauthorised construction and on structures officially declared unsafe.
What happens next will depend on the search itself. If no further victims are found, the focus will shift entirely to the investigation and to whether the four arrested men face charges over the illegal construction. If more bodies are recovered, the toll — and the pressure on the authorities to explain how an unsafe building was being worked on — will only grow.
