Ten people were killed after Smruti apartments, a three-decade-old building, collapsed in Mumbra on June 21. But those who managed to escape are facing a herculean task of piecing their lives together. Hopeful that they could start afresh by reclaiming some of the valuables, which they lost in the building crash, survivors plagued the site yesterday. However, most of them returned empty-handed.

Sixty-one-year-old Mumtaz Sheikh rummages through the debris for the gold jewellery that she had made for her daughter’s wedding. PIC/ Sameer Markande