Pune building collapse: Toll up at 9 as last body recovered; official dubs incident 'act of God'

Pune: Rescue teams recovered the body of the last missing person in the Moshi waste processing unit collapse near Pune in the wee hours of Sunday, taking the death toll in the tragedy to nine, officials said.

Meanwhile, a senior official at the waste-processing plant described the July 8 incident as an "act of God".

The three-storey administrative building of a Waste-to-Energy (WTE) plant run by the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation at Moshi in Pune district collapsed after the adjacent mound of garbage fell onto the structure like a landslide.


The body of Waman Kasbe, the last missing person, was recovered from the rubble in the wee hours of Sunday, raising the death toll to nine, while 14 persons have been rescued, officials said.

Also read: About 16 people stranded in building collapse in Pune's Pimpri-Chinchwad, rescue efforts underway

The search operation was later called off.

Speaking to reporters on Saturday evening after meeting the families of the victims, Mahendra Ananthula, Group President, Antony Waste Group, expressed grief over the loss of lives, saying those killed and injured were "part of our family".

"This was something like an act of God, a natural calamity... somehow we could not, no one can predict it. The kind of rainfall witnessed over the last four to five days could not have been predicted. Similar incidents have occurred in different parts of the country over the past week," he said.

The official said the company would bear the entire medical expenses of those injured in the incident.

Also read: Monsoon batters Delhi, Mumbai; 11 feared trapped in Pune building collapse

He also announced a compensation package of Rs 25 lakh for the families of each deceased victim through the company's contribution and insurance policy.

In addition, the company will offer a full-time job to one immediate family member of each deceased person and bear the education expenses of their minor children, he said.