29 Sep 2013

Final death toll of Mumbai building collapse 60

8:00 pm on 29 September 2013

The rescue operation at a four-storey building that collapsed on Friday in Mumbai, India has been called off, with the final death toll put at 60.

Rescuers saved 33 people from the rubble of the building near Dockyard Road in the east of the city.

The last to be found alive was a 50-year-old man pulled out on Saturday.

Alok Awasthi, local commander of the National Disaster Response Force, said all people thought to have been in the building had now been accounted for and the operation ended on Sunday morning.

The building had been home to more than 20 families of employees of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai.

Officials say the municipality asked the residents to vacate the property earlier this year.

Property prices and rent in Mumbai are among the highest in Asia. Many citizens are forced to live in old, dilapidated properties in a land-scarce city.

The BBC reports the collapse was the latest in a series in Mumbai in which more than 100 people were killed between April and June alone. Poor construction practices were blamed in earlier incidents.

Between 2008 and 2012, 100 buildings collapsed in which 53 people died and 103 others were injured.