NEW DELHI – A devastating structural collapse has killed six people and left multiple others injured after a 55-year-old five-story boys’ hostel caved in Sunday evening in Satya Niketan, a crowded residential neighborhood adjacent to Delhi University’s main campus that is packed with private student housing. As of Monday, search and rescue teams had entered their second consecutive day combing through twisted metal, broken concrete and splintered wood, working to locate any additional people still trapped beneath the wreckage.
Local law enforcement officers, firefighters, and specialist teams from India’s national disaster response force have been deployed to the scene, with heavy earthmoving equipment clearing large sections of debris and specially trained sniffer dogs helping rescuers pinpoint potential signs of life in the remaining rubble. Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta confirmed to reporters on site Monday that 12 people have already been pulled alive from the collapsed structure, and that roughly 80 percent of the total debris has been cleared. Only the wreckage from the building’s basement still needs to be fully processed, she added. Six people have been confirmed dead, and six more have been treated for injuries sustained in the collapse, per official updates.
Local residents told reporters the building was constructed more than half a century ago, and had been undergoing extensive renovation for several months before it reopened to student tenants in August. At the time of reopening, construction work was still incomplete on the structure, they said. Prakash Chand, a local resident, noted that construction workers were carrying out excavation work in the building’s basement when the structure suddenly collapsed.
Preliminary official investigations have pointed to two key contributing factors that likely caused the collapse: prolonged water accumulation in the building’s basement, combined with the stress of ongoing repair work on the already weakened, aging structure. Gupta added that the tragedy has prompted the Delhi government to move forward with a new mandatory safety policy for public-facing buildings. Under the proposed new rules, all structures that host public activity including student hostels, nursing homes, and schools will be required to complete routine structural safety audits and obtain up-to-date safety certificates. Any building that fails to meet the new safety standards will be barred from allowing public access, Gupta emphasized.
Structural collapses are a recurring, preventable public safety hazard across many regions of India, particularly during the annual June-to-September monsoon season. Heavy, prolonged rainfall during this period often seeps into the foundations of older, poorly maintained buildings, weakening their structural integrity over time and increasing the risk of sudden collapse.