Delhi Building Collapse: Death Toll Rises to Seven as Rescue Enters Fourth Day

The death toll from a building collapse in central Delhi has risen to seven, after rescue workers pulled another body from the rubble more than 70 hours after the three-storey structure came down.

The building, which was under construction in the crowded Hauz Qazi area near Chawri Bazar, collapsed at around 9.45 am on Thursday, 5 November. Rescue teams from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the Delhi Fire Service have been searching the debris ever since, and officials have not yet ruled out the possibility that more people are trapped underneath.

The latest victim was identified as Luchhuman Mukhiya, 66, a resident of Darbhanga in the state of Bihar. His body was recovered on Sunday, 8 November, and taken to Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan (LNJP) Hospital. With his recovery, seven bodies have now been pulled from the rubble.

Police have arrested the building’s owner and three contractors. The building was allegedly being constructed without the required approval, on a plot of just 50 square metres.

This is what happened, who the victims were, and why this part of Delhi is so vulnerable to tragedies like this one.

What happened in Hauz Qazi

The collapse happened on a Thursday morning in one of the oldest and most crowded parts of Delhi. Hauz Qazi sits in the heart of the old city, close to the famous Chawri Bazar market and a short walk from the Jama Masjid mosque.

The building was three storeys high and still under construction when it came down at around 9.45 am on 5 November. Workers were on site at the time. The collapse buried people under tonnes of concrete and twisted metal, and the first hours of the rescue were a race against time.

The NDRF and Delhi Fire Service moved in quickly, along with local police. But the rescue was slow and difficult from the start. The lanes around Hauz Qazi are narrow, which makes it hard to bring in heavy machinery. Rescuers had to work largely by hand, removing debris piece by piece while listening for signs of life underneath.

By Sunday, the operation had been going on for more than 70 hours. That is an unusually long rescue, and it tells its own story: the rubble was deep, the site was cramped, and the teams refused to give up while there was any chance someone was still alive beneath it.

The seven victims

All seven people killed in the collapse have now been identified. They are:

• Sanjeet Kumar
• Kishori Sah
• Pankaj Sharma
• Vipin Ram
• Shantu
• Dinesh Sah
• Luchhuman Mukhiya

The latest victim, Luchhuman Mukhiya, was 66 years old and from Darbhanga in Bihar. Like many of the workers on construction sites in Delhi, he had come to the capital from another state in search of work.

The victims were construction workers and people caught in the building when it fell. Their bodies were taken to LNJP Hospital for further proceedings, and their families have been informed.

The fact that rescue teams were still finding bodies on Sunday, three days after the collapse, shows how complete the destruction was. When a building collapses, the people inside are buried under layers of concrete slabs, bricks and steel. Finding them takes time, and in a narrow old-city lane there is little room to work.

Four people arrested

Delhi Police have arrested four people in connection with the collapse: the building’s owner, identified as Saimullah, also known as Ayub, and three contractors — Siraj, Tajuddin and Furkan.

A case was registered at the Hauz Qazi police station on 5 November, the day of the collapse. The charges were filed under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, India’s criminal code, including Section 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), Section 290 (negligent conduct with respect to pulling down or repairing buildings), Section 125(a) (an act endangering the life or personal safety of others), and Section 3(5) (common intention).

In plain language, the police case says the collapse was not simply an accident. It alleges that the people responsible for the building acted negligently, and that their negligence caused deaths.

The investigation will now look at exactly what went wrong: whether the building’s foundations were strong enough, whether the materials used were up to standard, and whether the construction followed the approved plan — if there was one at all.

A building without approval, on a tiny plot

One detail in the police case stands out. The building was allegedly being constructed without the required approval, on a plot of just 50 square metres.

Fifty square metres is a very small piece of land — roughly the size of a modest two-bedroom flat. Building three storeys on a plot that small, in an area where the neighbouring buildings press in on every side, leaves almost no margin for error.

Unauthorised construction is a well-known problem in Delhi, especially in the old city. In neighbourhoods like Hauz Qazi, many buildings are decades old, built long before modern safety rules existed. New construction often happens on small plots, squeezed between existing structures, and sometimes without the permissions the law requires.

When a building goes up without approval, it also goes up without the checks that approval is supposed to guarantee. Nobody from the municipal authorities has examined the plans. Nobody has confirmed the foundations can carry the weight. Nobody has checked the quality of the cement and steel. The building stands — until it doesn’t.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi is responsible for checking construction in the city and taking action against unauthorised buildings. After a collapse like this one, the usual questions follow: was the building on the authorities’ radar, were any complaints made, and was any action taken before it fell? Those questions are part of the investigation now under way.

Why this keeps happening in Delhi

Delhi has seen building collapses before, and the pattern is depressingly familiar. A building comes down, people die, arrests are made, and officials promise stricter enforcement. Then, months or years later, it happens again.

There are several reasons the risk is so high:

Old, crowded neighbourhoods. The old city, including Hauz Qazi, Chawri Bazar and Chandni Chowk, was built centuries ago, long before modern building codes. Its lanes are narrow, its plots are small, and its buildings stand shoulder to shoulder. When one building is demolished and rebuilt, there is barely any space to work, and the new structure leans on its neighbours for support.

Extra floors. A common problem in Delhi is the addition of floors that were never in the original plan. A building designed to hold two storeys ends up carrying three or four, and the foundations were never meant to take the extra weight. Over time, the structure weakens — and then one day, it fails.

Weak materials and poor workmanship. Construction on small, unauthorised sites is often done cheaply, with less cement than the design requires, or with steel that is thinner than it should be. The people doing the work may be skilled, but they are working without an engineer checking their work at each stage.

Nobody watching. When a building is constructed without approval, there is no official inspection. Problems that an inspector would catch — a cracked wall, a sagging beam, a foundation that is too shallow — go unnoticed until the building itself gives way.

The people who pay the price are usually the poorest. The workers on the site are often migrants from other states, earning daily wages. They have little power to refuse dangerous work, and when a building falls, they are the ones buried in it.

What happens next

The rescue operation at Hauz Qazi is continuing, and officials have said they cannot yet rule out more victims under the rubble. The priority remains finding anyone still trapped, but as the hours pass, the hope of finding survivors fades.

The police investigation will continue in parallel. The owner and the three contractors are in custody, and investigators will examine the building’s construction records — if any exist — along with the materials used and the work that was under way when the building fell.

There will also be pressure on the Municipal Corporation of Delhi to explain how a building could go up without approval in one of the most densely populated parts of the capital. After every collapse, there are calls for surveys of dangerous buildings, for demolitions of unsafe structures, and for tougher action against unauthorised construction. Whether those calls turn into lasting change is a question Delhi has faced many times before.

For the families of the seven dead, none of that brings anyone back. Seven men went to work on a Thursday morning in a building that should never have been built the way it was. Their deaths were, on the face of the police case, preventable — and that is what makes this collapse not just a tragedy, but a scandal.

Frequently asked questions

What happened in the Delhi building collapse?

A three-storey building under construction in the Hauz Qazi area of central Delhi, near Chawri Bazar, collapsed at around 9.45 am on Thursday, 5 November 2026. Seven people were killed.

Where exactly did the collapse happen?

In Hauz Qazi, a crowded neighbourhood in Delhi’s old city, near the Chawri Bazar market and the Jama Masjid mosque.

How many people died?

Seven. The latest body recovered was that of Luchhuman Mukhiya, 66, from Darbhanga in Bihar, found on Sunday, 8 November. The other victims were Sanjeet Kumar, Kishori Sah, Pankaj Sharma, Vipin Ram, Shantu and Dinesh Sah.

Who has been arrested?

The building’s owner, Saimullah (also known as Ayub), and three contractors — Siraj, Tajuddin and Furkan. A case was registered at Hauz Qazi police station under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, including charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

Was the building legal?

According to officials, the building was allegedly constructed without the required approval, on a plot of just 50 square metres.

Is the rescue operation over?

As of Sunday, 8 November, rescue work had been going on for more than 70 hours, and officials had not ruled out the possibility of more victims trapped in the rubble.

Conclusion

The Hauz Qazi collapse is a small story in one sense — a single building, in a single neighbourhood, in a city of millions. But it is also a story about how a city works, or fails to work, for the people who build it.

Seven men died because a building went up without approval, on a plot too small for what was built on it, and nobody stopped it in time. The arrests that followed are necessary, but they are not enough. Until unauthorised and unsafe construction is actually caught before buildings fall — not investigated after they do — Delhi will keep counting its dead in the rubble.

The rescue teams at Hauz Qazi worked for more than 70 hours in a narrow lane, by hand, because that was all the space allowed. Their effort deserves recognition. The system that put them there deserves far harder questions.

Sources

• Deccan Herald, “Delhi building collapse: Toll climbs to seven as rescue ops continue”, 8 November 2026: https://www.deccanherald.com/amp/story/india/delhi/delhi-building-collapse-death-toll-rises-to-7-rescue-operation-underway-4211766
• The Indian Express, “Hauz Qazi building collapse: Death toll rises to 7, rescue operation underway for over 70 hours”, 8 November 2026: https://indianexpress.com/article/india/today-india-breaking-news-live-updates-8-november-2026-delhi-building-collapse-toll-aqi-diwali-bengal-interns-10955282/
• ETV Bharat, “Delhi Chawri Bazaar Building Collapse: One More Body Recovered From Debris, Toll Rises To 7”, 8 November 2026: https://www.etvbharat.com/en/bharat/chawri-bazaar-building-collapse-one-more-body-recovered-from-the-debris-death-toll-rises-to-7-enn26110801460
• Business Standard, “Delhi Building collapse: Death toll rises to 7, rescue operation underway”, 8 November 2026: https://www.business-standard.com/amp/india-news/delhi-building-collapse-death-toll-rises-to-7-rescue-operation-underway-126110800093_1.html
• The Tribune (India), “Delhi building collapse: Toll rises to 7, rescue operation under way”, 8 November 2026: https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/delhi/delhi-building-collapse-toll-rises-to-7-rescue-operation-under-way/

This article is for general information and education only. It is not legal or financial advice.