AlQa'dah 22, 1434, Sep 28, 2013, SPA -- The death toll has risen to 33 after the collapse of an apartment building in India's financial hub Mumbai, as rescuers continue to search the site for survivors, dpa reported. "More bodies were recovered from the debris while some injured people succumbed to injuries, taking the death toll to 33," National Disaster Response Force commander Alok Avasthy told dpa on Saturday. According to broadcaster CNN-IBN, police arrested a decorator following a complaint from municipal authorities that he had allegedly made illegal alterations on the ground floor of the building, which collapsed on Friday. Avasthy said other residents, including a small girl, had been rescued. "According to the information we have, there were 89 people in the building, and 23 are feared trapped in the rubble," he added. It is not clear how long the rescue operations might take. "We have been going slow because there are live victims beneath the rubble. The operations are expected to continue through Saturday night," Avasty said. The four-storey building in the south-eastern part of the city collapsed early on Friday morning, when most people were still asleep. Officials said the 30-year-old building, used as a residential complex for city employees, did not meet safety criteria.
