Mumbai: Two more bodies have been retrieved from a car struck under the debris at the site of a giant hoarding collapse in Mumbai as the search and rescue operation continued on Thursday, taking the death toll 16. A 100-feet tall illegal billboard fell at a petrol pump at the Chedda Nagar Junction in Ghatkopar amid dust storms and unseasonal rains that lashed Mumbai on Monday.

“The bodies of a male and a female were retrieved from the car struck below the hoarding in Chheda Nagar area shortly after midnight,” said an official to newsagency PTI. 

The bodies were spotted on Wednesday. Rescue teams had earlier recovered 14 bodies from the hoarding crash site, while 75 persons were injured in the incident. The search and rescue operation continued even 40 hours after the incident.

BMC Initiates Action Against Illegal Hoardings 

BMC has vowed to take action against all hoardings erected without its permission in the city as the Ego Media hoarding which collapsed was erected by flouting BMC norms.

"A case has been registered in connection with the incident on Monday. We have also directed all civic officials and assistant commissioners to remove all hoardings in their respective wards which have been erected without BMC's permission or which are dangerous, immediately," PTI quoted municipal commissioner Bhushan Gagrani as saying after visiting the collapse site where rescue operation was underway.

Fire At Collapse Site

A small fire broke out at the incident site in Ghatkopar during the search and rescue operation on Wednesday morning, but it was immediately doused by the fire tenders deployed there, NDRF said. "There was a small fire but it was extinguished immediately," an NDRF told PTI.

Mumbai Police Commissioner Vivek Phansalkar assured that stringent action will be taken against those responsible for the hoarding collapse incident in the city. Phansalkar visited the spot late Monday evening where he spoke to reporters and assured of action against those responsible for the incident. The Mumbai police have registered a case under IPC 304, 338, 337, and 34 against owner Bhavesh Bhide and others at Pantnagar police station.

CM Orders Audit

Chief Minister Eknath Shinde visited the incident spot late Monday evening and ordered a structural audit of all hoardings in the city. "The hoardings, if found illegal and dangerous, would be removed immediately," he said.

"It is a very unfortunate incident. The government will probe it, and the people responsible will face action. I have also asked the BMC commissioner to conduct a structural audit of all the hoardings in the city. Those found illegal and dangerous will be removed," Shinde told reporters. He announced an aid of Rs 5 lakh to the kin of each person killed in the hoarding collapse.'

(With agency inputs)