Mohali building collapse: Another body recovered, toll rises to 2

A body was recovered on Sunday morning from the site where a multi-storey building collapsed in the Sohana village of Punjab’s Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar (Mohali) district.

With this, the death toll in the incident rose to two.

Earlier, rescuers worked through the night looking for people trapped under the debris of the building, which collapsed on Saturday evening.

Visuals from the spot early Sunday showed personnel from the Indian Army and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) continuing their rescue operations.

The first victim, a 20-year-old woman, was from Himachal Pradesh. The second victim, a male, was from Haryana’s Ambala.

The building, which housed a gym in the basement and had four floors, collapsed due to excavation work being carried out at the adjacent plot by the owners of the building, police said.

The land sunk due to excavation and brought down the building with it, according to police.

The owners, Parwinder Singh and Gagandeep Singh, have been booked under Sections 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

District officials have released a control room phone number (0172-2219506) and put all major hospitals in the city, including Civil Hospital (attached within Medical College), Fortis, Max and Sohana, on alert to cater to the injured.

Expressing his sorrow at the incident, Punjab chief minister Bhagwant posted on X (formerly Twitter), “The entire administration and other rescue teams have been deployed at the spot. I am in constant touch with the administration. We pray that there is no loss of life, we will also take action against the culprits. Appeal to the people to cooperate with the administration.”