STORY: :: Rescuers search for survivors after a billboard collapsed during a thunderstorm in Mumbai
:: May 14, 2024
:: Mumbai, India
The billboard fell on some houses and a fuel station next to a busy road following heavy rain and strong winds on Monday.
Officials from fire services, police, disaster response and other authorities continued rescue operations that were taking longer because gas cutters could not be used at the site due to the presence of the fuel pump.
The agency owning the billboard did not have a permit from Mumbai's municipal corporation (BMC) to put up the hoarding, the BMC said in a statement. The hoarding measured about 1,338 square meters (14,400 square feet), it said, bigger than an Olympic pool's 1,250-square-meter (13455 square feet) and nine times more than the maximum permitted size for a hoarding.
