NEW DELHI: For the residents of Sheesh Mahal, the morning of Friday was life-changing. In these few hours, the four-storey under-construction building they were living in nearly came to the ground. While the most part of the building was reduced to rubble, this obstructed the entrance of seven houses in the neighbourhood resulting in the families being stuck for several hours.
Mohammed Habib, whose house sits adjacent to the collapsed building, said that the heaps of concrete and iron which came down damaged his house in its entirety. “When I was getting ready for work in the morning, the building collapse blocked the entrance to my residence. My wife and kids were terrified since the electricity was also cut for a few hours at least,” he said.
Habib recalled the ordeal of the escape from his own house and said, “First, I tried to break open the main gate but things didn’t work. After that, I had to make a dangerous escape from the first floor of my house to my neighbour’s house.”
Akhtar Ali managed to escape through an air vent of the nearby house. “In the morning, my wife and I were going on about our daily routine, while I had also asked my eight-year-old daughter to bring bread and milk from the local store. Soon as she went out of the house the building collapsed like a deck of cards,” said Ali.
The rubble totally blocked the entrance to the street, Ali said. Later, I brought a ladder from my neighbour Mohammed Aqil, with which my children, my wife and I and escaped through the air vent.
According to Mohammed Aqil, “We never thought such a day would come and never realised that we were living in such cramped spaces. Following the incident, the kids have to remain go with an empty tummy for five or so hours,” he said.