Delhi Airport, India: One dead and several injured after part of the roof of Terminal 1 collapses

New Delhi
CNN
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A man was crushed to death in his car and eight others were injured on Friday when part of the roof of New Delhi airport collapsed following heavy rains, the latest spectacular infrastructure disaster to tarnish India’s image.

“Due to heavy rain since this morning, a portion of the canopy at the old departure area of ​​Delhi’s Terminal 1 collapsed at around 5 am,” Indira Gandhi International Airport said in a statement.

All departures from Terminal 1 are temporarily suspended, the statement added.

Ravinder Singh, deputy director general of Delhi Fire Services, said when rescuers reached the spot, two support pillars had fallen on a car.

“There were eight injuries and one man died,” Singh told CNN, noting that images showed a man “dying in the car when the pillar fell on it.”

“It took us a little longer to get his body out. Our rescue efforts ended after 20 minutes,” he said, adding that the injured were taken to hospital.

Photos of the accident scene released by the fire department showed the large white roof had collapsed to the ground, crushing several cars. A person could be seen in the driver’s seat of one of the cars, slumped under twisted metal.

Indian Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu said in a statement on X that he was “personally observing” the collapse.

Parts of the national capital Delhi experienced heavy rains this week, flooding streets and submerging cars. The showers brought some relief from weeks of sweltering heat after the city experienced temperatures of up to 49.9 degrees Celsius (121.8 degrees Fahrenheit) – the highest temperatures ever recorded – that strained the country’s power grid and electricity supply.

Friday’s incident is the latest in a series of break-ins and other mishaps in the country of 1.4 billion people, which in recent years has focused on major infrastructure projects and modernizing its ageing transport network.

At the beginning of the month, at least nine people were killed and dozens more injured when a freight train collided with a passenger train in eastern India.

In 2022, about 135 people were killed when a newly renovated suspension bridge collapsed in Morbi in the western state of Gujarat, considered one of the worst public safety tragedies in recent years.