New Delhi: Six people, including three women, were killed and five others injured after the wall and the roof of two adjacent rooms of a dargah near Humayun's Tomb in Delhi's Nizamuddin collapsed on Friday, officials said. Many more would have died had the portion of the roof of a centuries-old Delhi dargah collapsed just a few hours earlier during the Jumma namaz, PTI reported.
The incident happened at Dargah Sharif Patte Shah around 3:30 pm. The dargah shares its boundary walls with the 16th-century garden-tomb commissioned by Mughal emperor Humayun's first wife, Bega Begum, in 1558.
A senior police officer said the two rooms, one of which was occupied by an imam while the other was a resting room, were in a deteriorating state, and due to heavy rain in the past few days, the roof and one side of a wall collapsed when around 15 people took shelter there.
The premises house a mosque, where people frequently come to pray, a dargah and at least two rooms, officials said.
A local said people gathered on the premises to offer Friday prayers at the mosque.
There is also a mosque on the premises of Humayun's Tomb, and since there was a parking lot near the dargah where the incident occurred, some took shelter there because of the rain. As the rain intensified, people also took shelter in the imam's room.
A total of six people, including a 79-year-old man and three women, died in the incident, while a four-year-old boy was among the five injured, police said.
One of the deceased has been identified as Swaroop Chand (79), while the five injured have been identified as Md Shameem, Master Aryan, Gudiya, Rafat Parveen, and Rani (65), a Delhi Fire Services (DFS) officer said.
"After the collapse, 12 victims, mostly visitors, were rescued from under the debris. Nine of them were admitted to the AIIMS Trauma Centre, where five died.
"A male patient was admitted to the LNJP Hospital, while a female patient was taken to the RML Hospital," DCP (Southeast) Hemant Tiwari said.
The man admitted to the LNJP Hospital died during treatment, he said.
The victims belonged to the surrounding areas, Mustafabad and Zakir Nagar.