Residents of a four-storey building in the market area of Kalwa locality in Thane had a lucky escape as the structure, which had developed cracks, collapsed minutes after it was evacuated early today.
According to the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) officials, the building crashed in the wee hours, in which one woman was injured.
Around 2 AM, some of the occupants of the 32-year-old 'Annapurna' building, who had gone to attend a wedding nearby, spotted that the structure had developed huge cracks, they said.
The building was immediately evacuated and soon afterwards the structure came crashing down. There were 24 tenements in the building.
A woman police constable, Kanchan Gogle (24), a resident of the building, received minor injuries in the incident and is being treated at the Civic Hospital at Kalwa, the Disaster Management Cell of TMC said.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, who visited the site, assured financial assistance to the affected families.
