NOIDA: Two six-storey buildings collapsed in Noida Extension’s Shahberi village late on Tuesday, leaving several people trapped under a huge mass of concrete rubble. Rescuers struggled to find a way through several hours into the operation. One of the buildings was under construction and fell on the other, rescuers and local residents said, triggering a collective collapse. Police said some of those buried in the rubble were feared dead. Two persons were dug out of the rubble around 2 am and rushed to hospital. There was no official word on their condition.Chief minister Yogi Adityanath has ordered a probe.Earthmovers and a team from the National Disaster Response Force worked frantically at the site but none of those trapped had been found almost three hours into the rescue operations, at the time of writing this report. The site of the collapse is in a remote area, which is connected by a narrow lane. Earthmovers and rescue teams, along with a dog squad, had a difficult time reaching the spot. The exact number of people trapped under the rubble of the buildings, both built illegally, could not be ascertained. The number could be more than 20, based on accounts of residents, who said around 7-8 labourers had set up temporary residence at the building still under construction, while around seven families lived in the other building. At 12.20am, the team spotted a person’s leg under the rubble. They were still trying to reach this person by using an iron cutter to find a way through chunks of concrete that lay between them and the trapped person. Clothes, shoes, furniture and various household items lay scattered.A local resident said a six-storey building had been built illegally two years ago by a developer in which six-seven families had started living on rent. The livelihood of the residents came from employment in local factories. Next to this building, another developer was building a six-storey building in which the construction workers lived.Local residents said after the recent spells of rain, water had accumulated on the new building’s foundation and the structure had become weak. Noida Authority officials said neither building had any clearance. Vijay Kumar, a local resident, said the newer building had tilted on to the older one, triggering the collapse, leaving the people in the buildings under a 30-foot-high mass of debris. Locals informed the police and joined rescue operations. Four earthmovers were also deployed.Arun Kumar Singh, SP (city), said, “It is not clear how exactly this happened. Both the buildings have collapsed and we are trying to rescue the occupants. Some people are feared dead. But we are not clear about the total number of fatalities.”District magistrate B N Singh and Union minister Mahesh Sharma were present at the spot. Administration officials said the rescue operation could take at least 36 hours.In a statement issued late in the night, real estate body Credai said it was “unfortunate that such unauthorised construction is allowed in villages”.

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