In Mumbai, the financial hub of India, a billboard collapsed during a strong storm, leaving at least 60 people injured and 12 dead, according to officials on Monday.
Rescuers scrambled to locate any survivors at a gas station in the east of the city after the signage collapsed, trapping dozens of people beneath. An excavator was searching through the debris.
According to Gaurav Chauhan, an inspector with the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), eight bodies had already been pulled from the debris.
Four more bodies are still buried inside the debris, he added.
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"We have located them but we cannot remove them due to this petrol pump and the situation can be hazardous," he said.
According to a statement released earlier by the municipal authorities, sixty people had been saved and taken to hospitals.
The billboard that fell measured seventy by fifty meters, according to a post by Mumbai police on social media platform X.
On Thursday, severe winds, rain, and dust storms struck Mumbai. The storms uprooted trees, briefly cut off power in some areas of the city, and disrupted the city's train system.
According to reports in Indian media, at least 15 aircraft had their routes diverted, and flights were temporarily halted at the city's international airport.
The injured were receiving treatment at Rajawadi Hospital, according to Maharashtra state deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.
In a post on X, Fadnavis stated that a "high-level inquiry has been ordered into the incident."
