MUMBAI, India: Twelve people were killed and at least 60 injured after a billboard collapsed during a violent storm in India’s financial capital Mumbai, officials said on Monday.
An excavator dug through the rubble as rescue workers scrambled to find any survivors after signage collapsed at a gas station in the east of the city, trapping dozens of people underneath.
Eight bodies have already been removed from the rubble, said Gaurav Chauhan, an inspector with the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF).
Another four bodies are still buried inside the rubble, he added.
“We have found them but because of this petrol pump we cannot remove them and the situation could be dangerous,” he added.
Earlier in a statement, city authorities said 60 people were rescued and admitted to a hospital.
The collapsed billboard measured 70 by 50 meters, according to a post by the Mumbai Police on the social networking platform X.
Mumbai was hit by strong winds on Thursday accompanied by rain and dust storms that uprooted trees and caused brief power outages in parts of the city along with disrupting the city’s train network.
Indian media reported that flights at the city’s international airport were temporarily suspended, with at least 15 planes diverted.
Deputy Chief Minister Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis, said the injured were being treated at Rajawadi Hospital.
He said in a post on X that a high-level inquiry has been ordered into the incident.
