Delhi student hostel collapses, 3 killed, several feared trapped

New Delhi: At least three people were killed and several others were feared trapped after a five-storey building used as a boys’ paying-guest accommodation collapsed in southwest Delhi’s Satya Niketan on Sunday. Nine people had been pulled from the rubble by the evening as rescuers worked through tonnes of concrete in the congested neighbourhood near Delhi University’s South Campus.

The building, known locally as Hostel Daze, collapsed at about 1.30pm near Nanakpura Gurdwara, according to police and emergency-service officials. It had a basement and five upper floors and was reportedly being used as a 75-bed student accommodation facility.

Four people were taken to the Jai Prakash Narayan Apex Trauma Centre at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, hospital officials said. One was declared dead on arrival, two were in critical condition and a rescue worker was treated and discharged, while two more deaths were confirmed separately as the operation progressed.

The authorities had not established the precise number of people inside the building when it gave way, leaving the scale of the disaster uncertain. Estimates from witnesses ranged widely, with some saying between 30 and 50 students could have been on the premises, but officials had not verified those figures.

Some students trapped beneath the debris reportedly used their mobile phones to contact friends and rescuers, offering emergency teams possible clues to their locations. Residents said they heard a thunderous sound resembling an earthquake before dust engulfed the lane and cries for help emerged from the wreckage.

A police control-room call reporting the collapse was received at South Campus police station at 1.34pm. Police personnel, firefighters and ambulances were sent to the site before teams from the National Disaster Response Force, Delhi Disaster Management Authority, Municipal Corporation of Delhi and Civil Defence joined the operation.

Search teams deployed sniffer dogs and specialized equipment to detect signs of life, while earthmovers were used selectively to clear heavy debris. The narrow approach roads and closely packed buildings complicated the movement of large rescue vehicles and machinery, forcing responders to proceed cautiously to avoid triggering a secondary collapse.

The Delhi chief minister, Rekha Gupta, visited the site and said all participating agencies were coordinating their efforts to reach those still trapped. The adjoining building was evacuated as a precaution while engineers assessed whether the collapse had affected neighbouring structures.

The cause remained subject to a formal investigation, although police said repair work was under way in the basement when the structure failed. Investigators suspect that excavation or alterations at the lowest level may have weakened its supporting members, but this assessment had not been conclusively established.

Police described the property as a 40- to 50-year-old building and registered a case against its owner, a Gurugram resident. Investigators were examining the legality of the basement work, the building’s sanctioned plan, its structural condition and whether the paying-guest establishment had the necessary approvals.

Any interference with load-bearing columns, walls or foundations can destabilize an ageing building, particularly when upper floors remain occupied. The risk can increase during the monsoon because prolonged rain may saturate the soil, cause seepage and expose pre-existing weaknesses, although officials had not attributed this collapse directly to the weather.

Satya Niketan has developed into a major private-accommodation centre for students attending colleges around Delhi University’s South Campus. High demand, limited institutional hostel capacity and expensive rents have led to the intensive use of residential buildings, often with rooms subdivided or properties expanded to accommodate more occupants.

The leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, called for every possible effort to rescue those trapped and ensure urgent medical treatment for the injured. He also said inadequate hostel capacity was forcing students into overcrowded private accommodation, bringing the wider question of student-housing safety into focus.

The accident has revived scrutiny of regulatory enforcement in neighbourhoods where residential properties have been converted into hostels and paying-guest facilities. It also recalled an April 2022 collapse in Satya Niketan, when two construction workers were killed after part of a building undergoing renovation fell on them.

The latest disaster is likely to prompt questions over whether structural audits, occupancy limits and fire and building-safety regulations are being enforced consistently. For the immediate future, however, the priority remained the painstaking search for survivors and the safe removal of those still believed to be beneath the debris.