Pune: Two more people have been rescued from the debris of a building that collapsed at a waste management plant in Pimpri Chinchwad near Pune, taking the total number of rescued persons to nine, officials said on Thursday.
A three-storey building located beside a waste-to-energy plant in Moshi collapsed after a massive mound of garbage crashed onto it on Wednesday afternoon, trapping around 18 people beneath the debris.
Seven people were rescued within hours of the accident.
Shortly after midnight, two more people were pulled out of the rubble and shifted to a hospital. Both are in stable condition, officials said.
A multi-agency rescue operation is continuing to locate and rescue those still trapped, Deputy Commissioner of Police Ganesh Ingale said.
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, an official had said on Wednesday.
According to the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation, 23 people were initially believed to be trapped under the debris, of whom five managed to escape on their own before rescue operations began.
The rescue operation is being jointly carried out by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), the Indian Army, the Municipal Fire Brigade, the Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA) Fire Brigade and the police.
Officials said rescue efforts were continuing on a war footing to evacuate those still trapped.
Moshi Pradhikaran is a planned township in Pimpri-Chinchwad near Pune.
"The building stood next to a mountain-like pile of legacy (old) waste. Prima facie, it appears that due to heavy rainfall, the garbage mound became unstable and collapsed onto the building like a landslide," Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Commissioner Vijay Suryawanshi had said earlier.
