In the third such incident in 10 days, five persons were killed and 13 injured when a dilapidated building collapsed in south Mumbai.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh has announced that about 900 families from 80 such structures in the city would be evacuated within seven days.
Five persons, including three women, died while 13 others were seriously injured when the building on New Marine Street, near Panchratna Hotel, collapsed late on Sunday night.
Regretting that people living in such dangerous buildings are reluctant to move out, Deshmukh, who visited the site, said if need be, police would be asked to forcefully vacate these structures and the residents shifted to transit camps.
The identity of the deceased in the building collapse is yet to be established.
Those who sustained serious injuries have been admitted to the G T Hospital, police said, adding that three persons had a miraculous escape.
This is the third incident of a building collapsing in the last 10 days in south Mumbai, which has a large number of old buildings.
Survivors' tale: 3 hours under the debris
An over 100-year-old building had collapsed on August 23 in Nagpada area claiming 11 lives while in another incident on August 24, a vacant dilapidated building collapsed partially in Tardeo area.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra Housing Secretary N Rama Rao said that after last week's house collapse, the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority had carried out a fresh survey in the A, B and C wards along with local legislators and councillors and found these buildings to be in very dangerous condition.
"In fact, the tenants threatened the MHADA officials not to come near them and also begged them not to shift as their place of work is in south Mumbai," Rao said.
The tenants, have refused to go to any of the transit camps built by MHADA, Rao said. They claim that the camps do not have basic amenities like water and proper sanitation and some persons would have to travel a long distance to reach their place of work.
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