Pune building collapse: Toll rises to 9, rescue operation ends

Rescue personnel in Maharashtra’s Pune district on Sunday recovered the body of the last person who was missing after the collapse of a waste processing unit, PTI reported. With this, the toll in the incident has risen to nine.

On July 8, a three-storey administrative building of a waste-to-energy plant in the Moshi area of the Pimpri-Chinchwad city collapsed when an adjacent mound of garbage fell on it. Twenty-three employees of Antony Lara Renewable Energy Limited, a company that had been given a contract by the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation, were inside the building at the time, The Indian Express reported.

Five employees who were on the first floor had managed to escape immediately after the collapse. Nine trapped workers were rescued hours later in an operation by the National Disaster Response Force, the fire brigade and the Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority.

The body of a man named Bhavesh Wani was pulled out of the debris on Thursday, The Indian Express reported. However, rescuers had not been able to locate any other bodies for the next two days.

The rescue personnel subsequently deployed Poclain machines, dumpers and excavators to create a pathway through the debris, according to the newspaper. On Saturday, they recovered the bodies of seven more persons – Akshay Sawant, Sunil Korke, Sunny...

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