Twelve people died and at least 60 were injured after a billboard collapsed during a violent storm in India’s financial capital Mumbai. The local authorities made this known. The billboard collapsed at a gas station in the eastern part of the city, trapping dozens of people underneath. Gaurav Chauhan, inspector of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), said that eight bodies have already been pulled from the rubble. Four other bodies are still buried in the rubble, he added. «We have located them but we cannot remove them because of the petrol pump and the situation can be dangerous», he explained.
Previously, municipal authorities said 60 people had been rescued and hospitalized. The collapsed billboard measured 70 by 50 metres, according to a post on the Mumbai Police’s X social media platform.
Mumbai had been hit by strong winds accompanied by rain and dust storms on Thursday that uprooted trees and caused brief power outages in some parts of the city, as well as disruptions to the rail network. According to Indian media, flights were temporarily suspended at the city’s international airport and at least 15 planes were diverted. Devendra Fadnavis, deputy minister of the state of Maharashtra, said that the injured were being treated at Rajawadi hospital. “A high-level inquiry has been ordered into the incident,” Fadnavis said in a press release.