Collapse In India Kills 3, Traps 21

The back section tore away from an eight-story office building Tuesday afternoon in a deadly collapse that showered glass and concrete chunks onto a sidewalk. Three people were killed and at least 21 were trapped.

Fifteen fire trucks, rescuers and relatives of the office workers rushed to the building in an upscale district of Bombay, India’s financial capital.

Twenty-six people were rescued and 14 were hospitalized, police said.

Cables and crumpled pieces of concrete jutted from the sliced-open back of the building. A woman who gave her name only as Maya stood crying on the sidewalk, and said she was waiting for news of her husband, an office worker.

Firefighters led some of those they rescued down truck ladders, while others were apparently taken to the front of the building, where stairs were still safe to use.

A leaky water tank on the roof of the building, which housed offices of electronics, software and pharmaceutical companies, was the likely cause of the collapse, said Amarnath Dubey, the area deputy commissioner.