Building collapses kill 11 in India, lax monitoring blamed

Credit: Reuters/Anindito Mukherjee

1 of 2. Rescue workers clear the debris from the site of a collapsed building in New Delhi June 28, 2014.

Ten people including five children were killed in New Delhi after a 50-year-old apartment block with 14 occupants collapsed early on Saturday, a police spokesman said.

'Building collapse in Delhi brings forth need to adhere to safety requirements,' tweeted Vijay Goel, a lawmaker from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party that controls the Municipal Corporation of Delhi.

Numerous building accidents in India's large cities have killed about 100 people in the past year, according to local media reports. More than 50 people were killed when an apartment block collapsed in Mumbai last September.Deputy Commissioner of Police Madhur Verma told reporters an investigation into the cause of Saturday's building collapse in New Delhi had been launched.

Former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal called the incident a 'nexus between the builder mafia and the municipal corporation'. The corporation did not a answer phone call requesting comment.

Later on Saturday, an 11-storey building under construction in southern Tamil Nadu state came down, killing one worker, said K. Shanmugasundaram, a spokesman for the state police.

'Some 10 workers are in hospital and one of them is in the intensive care unit,' he told Reuters. 'Many more are still feared trapped.'

Local media reports said more than fifty people were feared trapped in the debris of the block.

(Reporting by Krishna N Das; Editing by Tom Heneghan and Sophie Hares)