Heavy monsoon rains in western India caused at least three walls to collapse onto huts and city shanties, killing at least 27 people and injuring dozens of others, officials said Tuesday, as forecasters warned of more rains.
At least 18 people were killed and 66 others injured after a 10-metre wall demarcating an urban forest collapsed during the night in Mumbai, police officer Sunil Deshmukh said.
Rescue teams with sniffer dogs were searching the area afterward, and rescuers from the Indian navy also fanned out to help and rescue residents of the waterlogged city that is India’s financial and entertainment capital.
Nine deaths were caused by two wall collapses elsewhere in Maharashtra state.
Six migrant construction workers were killed and five injured when a wall collapsed on their tin-roofed huts in Pune early Tuesday, an officer in the city’s Police Control Room said.
In Thane district, a school wall collapsed and fell onto huts, killing three people and injuring one, said Lakshman Pawar, a local civic official.
The monsoon season in India brings heavy rains from June to September that cause flooding and other damage. Building collapses are common as the rains weaken the foundations of poorly built structures. On Saturday, another wall collapse in Pune had killed 16 people living in a cluster of tin-roofed huts housing migrant workers and their families.
Monday’s rains also flooded roads in Mumbai and waterlogged train tracks.
