CTTO/CNN
New Delhi, India — A section of the roof at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport collapsed early Friday morning following heavy rainfall, resulting in the death of one man and injuries to eight others. This incident marks the latest in a series of high-profile infrastructure failures in India.
The collapse occurred around 5 a.m. at the old Departure forecourt of Terminal 1. A statement from the airport confirmed that due to the heavy rain, a portion of the canopy fell, causing the fatal accident. All departures from Terminal 1 have been temporarily suspended as a result.
Delhi Fire Services assistant divisional officer Ravinder Singh reported that rescuers arrived to find two support pillars had collapsed over a car. “There were eight injured and one man died,” Singh said, adding that the deceased was found in the car, crushed by the fallen pillar. “It took us a little longer to get his body out. Our rescue operations ended in 20 minutes,” he said, with the injured taken to the hospital.
Photos from the scene released by the fire service show the large white canopy of the roof on the ground, crushing several cars. One image depicts a person slumped under twisted metal in the driver’s seat of one of the cars.
India’s Minister of Civil Aviation, Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu, stated that he is “personally monitoring” the situation in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
Heavy rainfall has hit parts of the Delhi capital territory this week, flooding roads and submerging cars. The rain has provided some relief from weeks of extreme heat, with temperatures reaching as high as 49.9 degrees Celsius (121.8 degrees Fahrenheit) – the highest on record – straining the country’s electricity grid and power supply.
Friday’s incident adds to a troubling pattern of infrastructure collapses in India, a country of 1.4 billion people that has focused on grand infrastructure projects and upgrading its aging transport network in recent years. Earlier this month, at least nine people were killed, and dozens were injured when a cargo train collided with a passenger train in eastern India. In 2022, 135 people were killed when a newly renovated suspension bridge collapsed in Morbi, Gujarat, in one of the worst public safety tragedies in recent years.