New Delhi: Rescuers faced a race against time on Sunday as they battled congested lanes, heavy concrete debris, and structural instability to reach survivors trapped inside a collapsed building in Delhi’s Satya Niketan.
“Our immediate focus was to evacuate the area and control the panic,” said Sumer Kumar, deputy chief warden of Delhi Civil Defence. “We worked to calm the crowd and ensure that National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and Delhi Fire Services could carry out the rescue safely. Teams from Delhi Police and civil defence are also present.”
Locals initially rushed to help after hearing frantic phone calls from people trapped beneath the wreckage. However, the scale of the reinforced concrete collapse required specialised intervention. Rescuers deployed victim-location cameras and acoustic devices, which successfully detected faint signs of life deep beneath the heavy concrete blocks. The building’s reinforced concrete structure further complicated the operation. Large concrete slabs intertwined with steel reinforcement bars frequently entangled with the buckets of the JCB machines that were deployed. Rescue teams noted that cavities had formed beneath the fallen slabs. Officers used iron rods to lift and shift the concrete, creating enough space to reach and extricate survivors.