An apartment block collapsed in Mumbai's outskirts Friday, killing at least 10 people in the latest deadly incident to fuel concerns about the quality of construction in the booming Indian city. Rescue workers were using hand-held wire cutters and excavators to search through the rubble for survivors after the building on Mumbai's outskirts collapsed while many of its residents were sleeping, officials said.
"There have been 10 deaths, five adults and five children," said K.P. Raghuvanshi, police commissioner of Thane district, where the incident occurred. Thane police said 14 others more suffered minor injuries. Among those killed were a two-month-old girl and a seven-year-old boy, said Sandeep Malvi, spokesman for the Thane municipal corporation.
Police said an investigation was under way into the cause of what was the third building collapse in recent months in the Mumbai area, including one in April that killed 74 people. The collapses have highlighted widespread shoddy construction standards in India, where a huge demand for housing and pervasive corruption often result in cost-cutting and a lack of safety inspections.
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