At least 100 people feared trapped after building collapses in India

Locals and police search the debris after five-storey structure crumbles in Mahad

At least 100 people are feared trapped in the debris of a five-storey building that collapsed on Monday in an industrial town in western India, a local politician said.

Not all of the roughly 200 residents of the building in Mahad, about 165km south of India's financial capital Mumbai, were at home when it crumbled in the evening, Bharatshet Maruti Gogawale, the local politician, told Reuters.

“I believe about 100 to 125 people must have been inside at the time of its collapse,” Mr Gogawale, who attended the site, told Reuters.

The building comprised about 47 flats, according to the police department of western Maharashtra state.

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Authorities have yet to ascertain the cause of the collapse and the number of casualties, but about 30 people have been pulled out by rescue teams and local residents.

TV channels showed footage of the debris, with locals and police trying to reach the trapped people.

Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray has assured the local administration of all possible support for speedy rescue and relief work, his office said on Twitter.

Three teams from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have been moved to the site, the NDRF said in a statement.

Old creaky structures and illegal constructions in India often lead to building collapses, typically during torrential rain.

More than 1,200 people were killed in 1,161 building collapses across India in 2017, according to latest data from the National Crime Records Bureau. – Reuters