India, Nov. 6 -- NEW DELHI

Rescue operations at an illegal under-construction building site in Chawri Bazar's Sheesh Mahal locality were hindered by extremely narrow lanes, littered with hardware stores and flanked by markets that prevented heavy machinery from reaching the site of the collapse.

Emergency personnel said they had to navigate the congested lanes to reach on foot to reach the site, and the lane was only wide enough for two persons to walk at a time. As excavators could not be deployed, officials arranged for small trolleys to carry the debris and for personnel to reach trapped victims.

Personnel from the Delhi Fire Services (DFS) and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) were deployed at around 10am to carry out the res...