Mumbai, July 7 -- On Sunday evening, Waseem Khan, 38, was barely 120 metres away from the spot in Mankhurd's Janata Nagar where a ground-plus-three storey tenement collapsed amid heavy rains, the debris engulfing two adjacent structures and resulting in the death of six people, including five minors. "I thought there had been an explosion," Khan, who was at a nearby shop, told Hindustan Times. "I ran to the spot immediately, but when I reached there, I felt helpless. Huge concrete slabs, iron rods and debris lay everywhere. It was impossible to move anything with bare hands." Within minutes, hundreds of local residents reached the spot and launched an arduous rescue operation. Men, women and youngsters pulled away at smaller pieces of debris, then worked together to move larger chunks of concrete, desperate to reach those trapped underneath. "It took us more than an hour and a half to pull out the first child," Khan recalled. "He was still breathing when we rescued him." The last of the six victims trapped under the debris was rescued around 11pm, he said. All six - 38-year-old Akhtar Jahan, her children Muskan, Munaf, Nihal and Nabiya, aged 14, 7, 6, and 2 years respectively, and their neighbour's kid Aaliya, 7 - were rushed to nearby Shatabdi and Rajawadi hospitals, where they declared dead on arrival. The six were among eight people killed in the city on Sunday in rain-related incidents. On Monday, the Mankhurd police arrested two people in connection - Abdul Wahid and Gulam Raza Sayyad, the owner of the slum pocket and owner of the four-storey structure which collapsed onto adjacent tenements, respectively. "The arrested duo will be produced before a court on Tuesday," an officer familiar with the case told HT. It was around 8pm on Sunday when Akhtar Jahan stepped inside the single-storey tenement in Janata Nagar that had been her home for more than a decade, her neighbours told HT. The rain had eased briefly after battering the city through the day, and Jahan was accompanied by her four children and a neighbour's kid, on a mission to pack their things so they could move out of the tenement. Moments later, a four-storey tenement in the vicinity collapsed, the debris engulfing Jahan's former home and another adjacent tenement and trapping Jahan, her four children and their neighbour's kid beneath. "Tenants in the four-storey tenement and the single-storey tenement next to it had moved out in the afternoon, fearing they might collapse because of the rain. Jahan was also packing her things and preparing to leave when tragedy struck," said 47-year-old Khairunnisa Shaikh, her neighbour. Jahan's husband Moinuddin Shah, a daily wage worker, had told her they would start shifting once he was back from work, his nephew Akhtar Hussain Shah, 35, told HT over the phone from Uttar Pradesh's Basti district. "When he returned, he was shocked to find his entire family under the rubble," a relative said, requesting anonymity. "He has not been able to come to terms with the loss and has been hospitalised since." Neighbours said the family had been living there since Moinuddin Shah and Jahan's marriage 12 years ago and their four children were enrolled in a civic school. Jahan's and the children's mortal remains would be taken to the family's native village in Uttar Pradesh for their last rites, they said. Throughout Monday, civic workers continued clearing the debris at the site amid heavy police deployment and barricades. A civil official said clearing the site was particularly difficult because access roads were narrow and there was very little space to work. Local MLA Abu Asim Azmi said the tragedy went beyond the collapse of a single structure or the loss of one family. "How do we see three- and four-storey structures mushrooming in slum areas? Is the civic body looking the other way? If not, then there is clearly a nexus with those indulging in such illegal construction," he said. On Monday, the Mankhurd police arrested the owner of the Janata Nagar slum pocket and the four-storey structure which collapsed on Sunday for culpable homicide not amounting to murder. Investigators said the now-collapsed four-storey structure was not only illegal but inferior quality material had been used for construction. "The owners were well-aware that the structure was dangerous and could fall anytime. But they still neglected warnings, resulting in Sunday's mishap," a police officer said, requesting anonymity. Apart from the arrested duo, police have booked unknown public servants who neglected the illegal structure, and the contractor who built it, the officer added....