The rescue operations at Tandel Street in Dongri, which started around noon on Tuesday after the Kesarbai Mansion collapsed, ran into several hurdles. Apart from more than 80 fire brigade officials, 35 members of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) were working together to rescue around 15 families who were said to be trapped under the debris.

Fire brigade officials said that due to the location of the building, they were not able to bring any JCB diggers to the spot and the rescue operations were entirely being done manually. "The building was in a narrow lane and we had to manually remove all the debris. We were not able to use gas cutters initially for about two hours since there was a LPG leak in the area and the cutters could have led to an explosion. Thus, we had to use hydraulic equipment to cut through the metal parts to rescue people who were trapped," said a senior fire brigade official who was present at the spot. The locals also complicated matters. One of the NDRF officials said the locals were trying to help, but they were stepping on the debris while people were trapped underneath. "If we had space, then we could have worked faster. But locals were trying to use hammers to remove debris. All of this delayed the rescue work," said the official.