3 die in sleep as wall collapses in Mankhurd

A couple and their old mother, residents of a ground floor tenement, were killed in their sleep this morning after the wall of an abutting one-storey home in Mankhurd's Maharashtra Nagar collapsed on them. The ground floor structure was reduced to rubble; the other structure collapsed partially.

Fire personnel at the site of the accident in Maharashtra Nagar near Mankhurd railway station. Three residents were killed. Pics/ Sneha Kharabe

The incident occurred at 5.45 am. Fire officials said an LPG cylinder blast in the one-storey structure at Saibaba Rahiwasi Sangh, near Mankhurd railway station, made a wall in the adjoining house collapse. All 13 occupants of the two houses sustained injuries, three of whom were declared dead in hospitals.

A local said two families resided in the one-storey house - the owners, Gadhves, on the ground floor and the Pawars on the floor above. At the time of the tragedy, all four members of the Gadhve family were in the house, along with seven-year-old Swastik Jadhav. In the Pawars' house, the breadwinner, Hanumant, was out for work, leaving his wife and two children at home. The nearby building was occupied by the five-member Wankhede family.

Children are among the ten people who were injured in the incident; the one-storey structure collapsed on to a neighbouring building early this morning at Maharashtra Nagar in Mankhurd.

The Gadhves said they were jolted out of their sleep by the sound of the crash and made a quick getaway with only minor injuries.

The fire personnel rescued all 13 of the occupants, but the breadwinner of the Wankhede family, Sanjay (35), wife Rekha (30) and mother Kasturba (60) were declared dead in hospital. The others were taken to Shatabdi Hospital in Govandi and Sion Hospital.

"Kasturba and Rekha sustained internal injuries. We tried to revive them, but there was no response," said a doctor from the casualty ward of Shatabdi Hospital.

A police personnel records an injured resident's statement at Sion Hospital

The couple's children - Vishakha Wankhede (7) and Pratik (7) - sustained minor injuries, as did Swati Pawar (30), her children, Rudra (2) and Kadambari (7), Umesh Gadhve (40), wife Shobha (35), their sons, Omkar (12) and Soham, and Swastik (7).

All houses in the locality are tightly packed.