At least 16 people were feared trapped in India after a three-story building collapsed following days of heavy monsoon rainfall in the western state of Maharashtra.
The collapse happened around 1:45 p.m. local time on Wednesday in Pimpri Chinchwad, about 135 kilometers, or 84 miles, southeast of Mumbai, according to fire officials involved in the rescue effort.
Authorities said rescue and relief teams rushed to the scene as crews searched through the debris for anyone trapped underneath.
A senior fire brigade official told The Times of India that people were believed to be trapped under the rubble, though officials were still trying to determine the exact number and whether anyone had been killed.
“Some people are believed to be trapped under the debris but it is too early to confirm the exact number or whether there have been any casualties,” the official said.
Authorities later said the building was located at a municipal corporation facility in the Moshi area and housed a waste-to-energy plant. It was not immediately clear how many people were inside at the time of the collapse, but officials said 15 to 16 people were believed to be under the rubble. No deaths had been reported at the time.
Vijay Suryawanshi, commissioner of the municipal corporation, told the Hindustan Times that early information suggested a large mound of waste may have collapsed onto the building after becoming unstable in the rain.
“The administrative building was situated next to a mountain-like pile of legacy waste,” Suryawanshi said. “Prima facie, it appears that due to heavy rains, the waste mound became loose and collapsed on top of the building.”
“Heavy rainfall over the past two days caused the legacy waste to become unstable and slide onto the administrative building,” he added.
The collapse comes as Maharashtra has been hit by intense monsoon rainfall following the delayed arrival of the season in India.
According to the India Meteorological Department, the region has recorded “exceptional” rainfall, with one popular tourist destination receiving 1,300 millimeters, or more than 51 inches, of rain between Sunday and Wednesday. The weather agency considers rainfall above 200 millimeters, or nearly 8 inches, to be “extremely high.”
The ongoing rain has been linked to a depression over central India. The weather system is expected to move slowly west-northwest across Madhya Pradesh and adjoining southwestern Uttar Pradesh before weakening further by Thursday, according to the India Meteorological Department.
India depends on the monsoon for about 70% of its annual rainfall, which helps sustain agriculture for hundreds of millions of people. But in recent years, those seasonal rains have increasingly arrived in intense, destructive bursts rather than steady showers.
Experts have pointed to the climate crisis as one major reason monsoon rainfall is becoming more erratic and dangerous.
For rescue crews in Pimpri Chinchwad, the immediate focus remains on the people feared trapped beneath the collapsed building as heavy rain continues to complicate conditions across the region.