A body was recovered from the debris of the building that collapsed at a waste management plant in Pimpri Chinchwad near Pune on Thursday, while nine people have been rescued so far as multi-agency teams continued search operations, officials said.
The three-storey building, located over a waste-to-energy plant at Moshi, collapsed on Wednesday afternoon after a massive mound of legacy waste gave way and crashed onto the structure, trapping around 18 people under the rubble.
Seven people were pulled out within hours of the accident, while two more were rescued after midnight, taking the total number of survivors to nine.
According to a senior National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) official, one body was recovered on Thursday morning.
“We suspect that 7 to 8 people are still trapped under the debris. We have spotted two persons who are motionless and appear to be seriously injured. We have to remove the debris manually as machines could create vibrations and make it unstable,” the official said.
Deputy Commissioner of Police Ganesh Ingale said rescue operations were continuing to trace and evacuate those still trapped.
Employees of Antony Lara Renewable Energy, which operates the 14 MW waste-to-energy plant in collaboration with the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC), were among those trapped, officials said.
The PCMC had initially said that 23 people were believed to be trapped under the debris, of whom five managed to escape on their own before rescue teams began operations.
The rescue effort involves personnel from the NDRF, the Indian Army, the PCMC fire brigade, the Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority fire brigade and the police.
Rescue operations were continuing on a war footing to evacuate the remaining people, the civic body said.
Moshi Pradhikaran is a planned neighbourhood in Pimpri Chinchwad near Pune.
Earlier, Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Commissioner Vijay Suryawanshi had said the building stood adjacent to a mountain-like pile of legacy waste and that heavy rain had apparently loosened the waste mound, causing it to collapse onto the building like a landslide.
(With inputs from PTI)