The death toll in the Mumbai hoarding collapse hit 16 on Thursday morning after two more bodies were retrieved from a car stuck underneath the remains of the collapsed structure. No person was rescued throughout the day.
"The bodies of a male and a female were retrieved from the car struck below the hoarding in the Chheda Nagar area shortly after midnight," an NDRF official told reporters on Wednesday night.
The search operation which has been going on for the past two days has ended today. However, it will take another 24 hours to clear the accident site.
"Dismantling of three other illegal hoardings standing there will take around seven days. The size of these hoardings is 80 x 80 feet each," he said. The search and rescue operation has been going on for the last more than 48 hours. Several vehicles, including two-wheelers, are trapped under the hoarding," the official told PTI.
The giant 120 x 120-foot hoarding collapsed on a petrol pump during gusty winds on Monday evening.
Meanwhile, the search for the owner of the advertising firm which put up the hoarding continues. Over 10 police teams from Mumbai and Gujarat have intensified the search for Bhavesh Bhinde, director of Ego Media Pvt Ltd.
Bhinde's last location was reportedly at Lonavala and a police team have headed to the hill station, Hindustan Times quoted an officer from the Mumbai police’s crime branch. Police teams are currently looking for him in Lonavala, Mumbai, Pune, various airports, and his native place in Gujarat.
BMC Commissioner Bhushan Gagrani told reporters that the rescue operation has been completed. "This is an active petrol pump, hence the delay in our rescue operation. The Chief Minister has ordered to check all the hoardings," he said.
He added that three hoardings in the city limit have been removed. "These hoardings need a structural stability certificate. They need to follow the specification of size, foundation and the wind velocity which passes through to provide the necessary stability," Gagrani added.