The incident was reported at around 9:50 am from Gali Sitara, near the Chawri Bazaar Metro station. At least six fire units, including water trucks and rescue vehicles, were rushed to the spot. NDRF personnel are also carrying out rescue operations to locate and evacuate people trapped beneath the debris.
Visuals from the scene showed a portion of the building reduced to rubble, with debris scattered across a narrow lane surrounded by adjacent multi-storey buildings. The narrow lanes of Old Delhi, where vehicles are often parked on both sides, have created challenges for rescue operations.
In one of the videos from the site, residents were seen moving their vehicles from the affected lane to make way for an ambulance. Rescue personnel have to walk several metres to reach the collapse site and pull people out of the debris, further complicating the operation.
According to eyewitness Mohd Nayeem, the building collapsed at around 9:30 am. Recalling the incident, he said residents were asleep when they heard a loud crashing sound.
"We were asleep when we heard a crashing sound. We all got up and rushed outside. We thought our own house was collapsing. When we checked, we realised it was the house being built next door," Nayeem said.
A local resident said nobody was living in the building, which had been under construction for the past three to four months. Only labourers were present inside when the incident occurred. The property owner reportedly lives with his family in a rented accommodation.
Deputy Commissioner of Police Rohit Rajbir Singh said three people had been rescued from the debris. Of them, two were declared dead, while one sustained injuries. He also said construction work was being carried out on the fourth floor of the building when the collapse occurred.
According to Singh, most of the labourers managed to escape as soon as the building started collapsing. However, authorities have not yet established whether anyone else remains trapped.
"We have not been able to ascertain if more people are trapped," Singh said.
The police have identified the building owners and assured that action would be taken against those responsible, including the builder.
"We will be taking actions against the owners and builder of the building. We have identified the people," Singh said.
The Chawri Bazaar incident comes days after two slabs of a building collapsed in the Milan Garden area of northeast Delhi, killing two men. The incident took place while a new floor was being constructed above an old house. During the construction work, a portion of the existing roof reportedly gave way, triggering the collapse of the slab above it.
The victims were identified as Chanderpal, 60, and Vijay Kumar, 33. Both were trapped under the debris and were declared dead after being rescued and taken to a hospital.
Earlier, on October 7, three people, including a child, died after a four-storey building collapsed in the Seemapuri area of northeast Delhi. Eight injured people were rescued and taken to Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital in Tahirpur for treatment.
Reacting to the latest building collapse, AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj criticised Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), questioning the effectiveness of the safety audits conducted by the civic body.
#WATCH | Delhi: NDRF carries out search and rescue operations at the spot where a portion of an under construction building collapsed in Delhi’s Chawri Bazaar area. Two people have lost their lives in the incident. https://t.co/IcMXASyMHX
— ANI (@ANI) November 5, 2026
His criticism comes after a building operating as a boys' paying guest (PG) accommodation facility in South Delhi's Satya Niketan collapsed on September 6, following which the MCD conducted safety audits of buildings across Delhi.
Questioning the outcome of those inspections, Bharadwaj said, "Rekha Gupta's government and MCD conducted multiple safety audits of all buildings in Delhi, yet buildings keep collapsing. Why?"
The latest collapse has once again brought the safety of buildings undergoing construction in Delhi under scrutiny, with two deaths confirmed and the possibility of more people being trapped still being assessed by rescue teams.
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