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Mumbai death toll rises

September 28, 2013

The collapse of an apartment building in eastern Mumbai has killed 60 people, according to authorities. Rescuers have now called off their search operation.

https://p.dw.com/p/19pzM
A five-storey building collapsed in Mumbai at day-break on Friday, killing 60 people, in the latest accident in India's financial capital. MUKHERJEE/AFP/Getty Images)
Image: INDRANIL MUKHERJEE/AFP/Getty Images

Officials said 33 survivors had been rescued, and all people listed as missing had been accounted for when the search was called off on Sunday morning.

They said the death toll may still rise if people wounded in the incident succumbed their injuries.

The five-story apartment building in Mumbai's eastern suburbs collapsed on Friday. The cause of the collapse remains unknown, but some tenants blamed faulty building materials.

According to the Press Trust of India, a civic group has filed a complaint against a contractor, who had allegedly made illegal alterations to the ground floor of the building.

Owned by the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai, the apartment building was constructed in the 1980s and housed city government workers. The Municipal Corporation had asked some of its employees to move out of the building earlier in the year. However, no reason was given as to why they were asked to move.

Five other apartment buildings have collapsed in or near to Mumbai this year. In April, a collapse killed 74 people. India has lax building inspections and suffers from chronic corruption.

tj, slk/mkg (AP, AFP, dpa)