India, July 31 -- At least nine people died after a four-storey building collapsed late on Thursday night in Bhiwandi, in Maharashtra's Thane district, leaving several people trapped under the debris, officials said. Rescue teams recovered nine bodies, while more people are feared buried beneath the debris.

The four-storey Kohinoor Building in Balaji Nagar had already been declared unsafe by the Bhiwandi-Nizampur Municipal Corporation (BNMC), fire officials said. Although the structure had been marked as dangerous, repair work was in progress when it collapsed, HT reported earlier.

In a statement, the Thane collectorate said search and rescue operations are being carried out with the help of trained sniffer dogs.

Two ambulances and a J...