Six including women killed after portion of Humayun's tomb collapses in Delhi

New Delhi: Six people including three women were killed and five others injured after the wall and the roof of two adjacent rooms of a dargah near the Humayun's Tomb in Delhi's Nizamuddin collapsed on Friday.

The accident took place at Dargah Sharif Patte Shah around 3:30 pm. The dargah shares its boundary walls with the 16th century garden-tomb commissioned by Mughal emperor Humayun's first wife Bega Begum in 1558.

According to Delhi police, a 79-year-old man and three women, died in the incident, while a four-year-old boy was among the five injured. The victims belonged to the surrounding areas, Mustafabad and Zakir Nagar.

One of the deceased has been identified as Swaroop Chand (79), while the five injured are Md Shameem, Master Aryan, Gudiya, Rafat Parveen, and Rani (65), a Delhi Fire Services (DFS) officer said.

"After the collapse, 12 victims, mostly visitors, were rescued from under the debris. Nine of them were admitted to the AIIMS Trauma Centre, where five died.

"A male patient was admitted to the LNJP Hospital, while a female patient was taken to the RML Hospital," DCP (Southeast) Hemant Tiwari said.

The man admitted to the LNJP Hospital died during treatment, he said.

The DVR of the mosque has been taken to the Hazarat Nizamuddin police station, and the caretakers of the mosque are being examined, police said.

Multiple rescue agencies, including the Delhi Fire Services (DFS), Delhi Police, NDRF and Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA), were pressed into service following the incident.

"The Station House Officer and local staff reached there within five minutes and started the rescue. Some time later, fire personnel and CATS ambulances also reached the spot. NDRF also joined the rescue efforts," a senior police officer said, adding that the rescue operations are still going on.

A senior DFS official had initially said a call regarding the collapse of a portion of a dome at the tomb was received after which five fire tenders were rushed to the spot immediately.

Authorities clarified that the incident did not involve the main dome of the 16th-century monument but a smaller room within its premises.

Humayun's Tomb, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a major tourist attraction in the national capital and is visited daily by hundreds of domestic and foreign visitors. "There has been no damage in Humayun Tomb. A new structure was being built near the Humayun tomb, its portion has collapsed, and some of it also fell onto the walls of the Humayun Tomb," Ratish Nanda, conservation architect at Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC), the organisation behind the restoration of Humayun's Tomb, said.