Three people were killed and several injured, some of them seriously, when a multi-storey building collapsed on Thursday in a busy locality in Ulhasnagar in Thane district, about 60 km from Mumbai, the police said.
Six people were rescued from the debris, while a few others were feared trapped, the police said, adding rescue operations were on in full swing.
The 10-year-old building, Sanmukh Sadan, in Nehru Chowk area of Sector II of the town, came crashing down around 4 pm, the police said adding that three bodies had been recovered from the debris so far.
Several high-rise buildings have come up in the town in violation of development rules in the past one decade.
On a directive of the Bombay high court, a few unauthorised buildings were demolished in the recent past, the police said. According to residents of the locality, one of the pillars on the ground floor of the building had developed cracks following which the entire building was evacuated and repairs undertaken on a war footing.
However, shops on the ground floor continued to operate business as usual.
