Delhi building collapse: Eyewitness recall sequence of events

We heard a loud crash and a cloud of dust engulfed us, recalled Sampati, a resident of Delhis Lahori Gate, where a two-storey building collapsed on Sunday, killing three people and damaging houses around it, including hers.We were preparing to cook dinner when we heard a loud noise.

We heard a loud crash and a cloud of dust engulfed us, recalled Sampati, a resident of Delhi's Lahori Gate, where a two-storey building collapsed on Sunday, killing three people and damaging houses around it, including hers.

''We were preparing to cook dinner when we heard a loud noise. We came out of our houses and saw dust everywhere. ''The debris from the building damaged my washroom, television and bed. We were outside our house the whole night in the rain without food,'' said Sampati who lives opposite the building that collapsed. Three people, including a minor girl, died after the building collapsed on Sunday. While the body of four-year-old girl Khushi was recovered on Sunday, two more bodies -- identified as Suleman (75) and Shagufta (70) -- were pulled out later, police said. ''Now who will compensate for our loss? There were two shops on the ground floor of the building. Khushi was known too us but she died,'' she said. Yaseen Khan had a shop on the ground floor of the building. The structure collapsed just five minutes after I left the shop, he says.

''I had a motor-repairing shop on the ground floor. Around 7.20 pm on Sunday, I had closed my shop. As I was walking away from the building, it collapsed. People were running for their lives,'' Khan said. Raju (18) also had a narrow escape as he got trapped after debris from the building blocked the entrance of his house.

''When the building collapsed, we all ran out of house. But Raju got trapped inside as the entrance of the house got blocked by the debris. We managed to break the lower portion of the back door and rescued Raju,'' said 60-year-old Bhim Singh, a retired sanitation worker and Raju's father.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)