The fire department got the call at roughly 9:50 am. By the time engines reached Gali Sitara, a lane off the Chawri Bazaar Metro Station, a good part of the building was already on the ground.
It was a three-storey structure and still being built. Delhi Police say two people died. A third, injured, was brought out alive. NDRF personnel recovered the two bodies from the rubble, and as of midday nobody had put names to them.
People are still believed to be inside.
Depends on who you read. India Today and Outlook say six. The New Indian Express and India TV say fifteen. Officials on the ground haven't confirmed either figure, and in the first hours of a collapse like this one they rarely can, because nobody knows exactly who was on the site when the slab came down.
One injured labourer reportedly told people nearby that three or four workers had been there. That's one account, from one person who had just been through it.
A man who lives next door described it to ANI. His family was asleep. A crashing sound woke them, and they assumed their own house was falling. Then they saw it was the new construction beside them. He said three or four lintels had already been cast and they all came down at once. He also said he saw a body being carried out.
Work on the building, he added, had been going on for three or four months.
Chawri Bazaar is a wholesale market. Lanes are shoulder-width in places, shopfronts press against each other, and the area fills up early. Getting a fire tender close is a job in itself. Getting an excavator in isn't possible.
So the teams are doing it the slow way. Cranes lift sections of debris off, a few at a time, while NDRF members and firefighters check each gap before the next piece moves. Six fire units, rescue vehicles and water tankers are on site, with senior officers directing the work. Medical teams were sent in as well.
Diwali is on Sunday and Dhanteras is tomorrow, which means the whole Chandni Chowk belt is jammed with shoppers this week. Several outlets noted that the collapse hit during the festive crush. Crowds gathered at the edges of the cordon through the morning, many of them traders who run shops a few doors down.
Who owns the building? Who was running the work? Did the MCD sanction it? There's no official statement on any of these, and Delhi Police haven't said whether a case has been registered, though that usually follows within a day or so in collapses like this.
Aam Aadmi Party leader Saurabh Bharadwaj posted on X soon after, calling it another three-storey collapse in Chawri Bazaar and attacking the government. The party has made building safety a political argument before, and this will add fuel.
Who owns the building? Who was running the work? Did the MCD sanction it? There's no official statement on any of these, and Delhi Police haven't said whether a case has been registered, though that usually follows within a day or so in collapses like this.
Aam Aadmi Party leader Saurabh Bharadwaj posted on X soon after, calling it another three-storey collapse in Chawri Bazaar and attacking the government. The party has made building safety a political argument before, and this will add fuel.
It's been a bad two months for the city. A building came down in Satya Niketan in early September and killed seven people. After that, reports say, five MCD officials were suspended and an enforcement drive against illegal floors was announced. Seemapuri saw another deadly collapse last month. Chawri Bazaar makes at least the third in a short span.
Past cases in Old Delhi have usually turned up a mix of unauthorised work, weak supervision and ageing neighbours that nobody checked. Nobody has said any of that applies here. Investigators haven't reached that stage.
Rescue operations are continuing, and the numbers could change through the afternoon as teams get deeper into the debris.
