New Delhi — At the least 14 folks have been killed and 74 others injured when an enormous billboard collapsed in India’s monetary capital of Mumbai throughout a extreme wind and dirt storm on Monday night.
The metallic billboard — larger than an Olympic-sized swimming pool at 120 ft in size and top — had ignored a gasoline station within the Mumbai suburb of Ghatkopar earlier than it collapsed onto the enterprise, crushing vehicles and other people beneath.
Movies shared on social media confirmed the billboard — which had been marketed as Asia’s largest — blowing round earlier than it collapsed within the blinding mud storm, which was adopted by heavy rains that disrupted flights and site visitors within the metropolis.
Prashant Waydande/REUTERS
Rescuers labored by means of the night time and into Tuesday afternoon, utilizing heavy equipment to chop by means of the mangled metallic particles of the collapsed construction to search out survivors and retrieve our bodies.
Maharashtra state’s prime authorities official, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, known as the incident “painful and unhappy” and vowed “strict motion” towards the billboard’s house owners. He additionally introduced authorities compensation of 500,000 Indian rupees (about $6,000) for each household that had somebody killed within the accident.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Company (BMC), Mumbai’s municipal physique, stated in a press release that the billboard’s proprietor, the Ego Media company, didn’t have a allow to erect the massive construction.
The hoarding was 9 occasions bigger than what was permitted, in accordance with the BMC.
Hemanshi Kamani/REUTERS
Police have registered a case of culpable murder towards Bhavesh Bhinde, the proprietor of Ego Media.
The BMC was ordered to hold out a security audit of all hoardings within the sprawling, densely populated metropolis, and to take down any deemed harmful, Shinde stated in a social media submit.
Mumbai is India’s business and monetary hub, and it is residence to tons of of towering promoting billboards – a priority as local weather change fuels ever extra intense storms, which regularly deliver with them extreme winds and rain.
The town is usually crippled by flooding throughout the monsoon season, which stretches from June to September.
