Mumbai building collapse kills at least 42, leaves dozens trapped beneath rubble (VIDEO)
Firefighters bring out a female survivor from the rubble at the site of a building collapse in Mumbai on September 27, 2013. A five-storey residential block collapsed in Mumbai at daybreak killing at least three people and leaving up to 70 feared trapped inside, in the latest building disaster to hit India’s financial capital.
The death toll from Friday's multi-story residential building collapse in the Indian financial hub of Mumbai has risen to 42, BBC reported.
Earlier reports put the number of dead at 13, with dozens more trapped beneath the wreckage.
The death toll could continue to rise as rescue workers plow through debris in order to free residents buried underneath when the building collapsed just before 6 a.m. local time, said the Times of India.
Shoddy construction work and poorly enforced safety regulations in India have lead to numerous such incidents, with at least 100 people killed in five building collapses in Mumbai alone from April to May.
The 30-year-old building that collapsed on Friday was home to 100 people and located in Mumbai's east, near Dockyard Road, said the BBC.
Some 33 people have reportedly been rescued so far.
"My son is inside. I'm waiting for them to get him out," 62-year-old Mithi Solanki told Agence France-Presse.
It was not immediately clear what had caused the building to collapse.
According to the Times of India, the building was in desperate need of repairs and a local inspectors had recommended that residents be relocated due to safety concerns.
"The delay in shifting out the residents to transit camps and carrying out repairs has led to the avoidable tragedy," former Mumbai city corporator Suresh Jadhav told the Times of India.
But local officials told the BBC that dozens of families had been asked to vacate the building earlier this year.
"We had issued a notice to them in April to vacate the building, but they did not act," municipality spokesman Vijay Khabale Patil told the BBC. He did not give a reason why they were asked to leave.
Over half of Mumbai's residents live in slums, according to AFP.
Building collapses are common in India where construction companies often use cheap materials and flout safety standards.
Around a dozen people were killed in August when two buildings collapsed in Vadodara, in the northwestern state of Gujarat.
Watch rescue work at the scene here:
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