At least 14 people have died and dozens are feared to be trapped after a billboard bigger than an Olympic swimming pool collapsed in Mumbai.
The disaster, which left at least 75 people injured, happened during a thunderstorm in the western Indian city on Monday.
The injured people were taken to hospital with 31 of them having been discharged, according to Mumbai’s municipal corporation (BMC), the governing civic body of the city in Maharashtra.
About 25 people and some cars were still trapped under the crumpled billboard on Tuesday, a BMC official who did not want to be named has said.
Footage shows the huge billboard billowing in the wind before collapsing on houses and a petrol station next to a busy road in the eastern suburb of Ghatkopar.
Fire, disaster response, police and other authorities have been carrying out rescue operations.
The efforts have been taking longer because gas cutters could not be used at the site due to the presence of a fuel pump.
Firefighters stand next to crushed vehicles after the disaster. Pic: Reuters
The billboard measured around 1,338 square metres (14,400 square feet), the BMC has said.
This means it was nine times bigger than the maximum permitted size for a billboard in the area.
It is also larger than an Olympic swimming – which measures at 1,250 square metres (13,455 square feet).
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The billboard fell on a petrol station. Pic: Reuters
The agency who owned the billboard did not have a permit to put up the hoarding, the BMC has said in a statement.
The municipal corporation added it has instructed the agency to remove all its hoardings immediately.
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“To prevent such accidents from happening again, instructions have been given to conduct a structural audit of all hoardings in Mumbai and immediately take down dangerous ones,” Eknath Shinde, the chief minister of Maharashtra state said in a post on the X social media platform.
The collapse happened as a dust storm and rain hammered Mumbai on Monday, bringing traffic to a standstill and disrupting flights at the city’s airport.
