MUMBAI, Aug. 13 -- Seven people died, including four from one family, and seven others were injured after a landslide on a hill slope crushed slum homes in Gaushiya Chawl in Chirag Nagar in Kurla west, at around 3.30am on Wednesday. The deceased included two children aged two and four. Residents said it was raining when the landslide occurred. A peepal tree on the hillside was uprooted and came down along with mud and other debris, destroying four slum homes and damaging three others. Like so many others in Mumbai, the settlement on the hill slope was unauthorised and had been served the routine pre-monsoon notice but the residents had nowhere else to go. Rescue was difficult due to the narrow lanes in the neighbourhood, said chief fire officer Ravindra Ambulgekar. "Even though we had the required equipment, we had to undertake the rescue work manually." Survivors are still reeling from shock. Atturnissa Ansari, 45, a balloon seller, said, "My three sons, my nephew and his friend were asleep on the upper level, while my husband and I were beneath. We heard a loud thud and I tried to see what it was. The entire roof had crashed on my children." Ansari said the entrance to her home was blocked by soil the landslide had dumped. "We started shouting. By then, people had gathered outside and removed the soil," she recalls. While her sons survived, Ansari's nephew Samir Ansari, 16, and his friend Sahil Kazi, 19, died in the crash. Shabbir Qureshi, 28, a general store owner and one of the first responders, said he is haunted by the cries of those who were trapped. "After the crash, there was panic all around. Some of us rushed forward when people started shouting that the mountain had come crashing down." Qureshi said they tried desperately to clear the rubble. "We could hear the cries of those who were trapped but we couldn't get to them," he recalls. Another resident, Naeemuddin Khan, 48, said he had returned home at 1:30am after admitting his pregnant daughter to Bhabha Hospital in Kurla. A cloth vendor, Khan was fast asleep when the roof of his home collapsed. "At first, I thought I was dreaming and someone had pinned me down. Then I realised the roof had collapsed on me. Thankfully, the debris fell on my legs and I was able to free myself." After that, Khan navigated an obstacle course on his way to safety. "There was no way to climb down due to the debris, so I jumped onto the adjacent roof and walked across three houses. At one point, one of the roofs gave way and I fell inside. I took the staircase from there, came out and was taken to hospital," he recalls. The deceased were brought dead to Rajawadi Hospital. They are: Mohamad Samir Ansari (16), Sahil Husen Abdul Kazi (19), Arif Shaikh (28), Aban Arif Shaikh (2), Manat Arif Shaikh (4), Marjina Arif Shaikh (27) and Viket Ramesh Yadav (27). Four of the seven injured were admitted to Bhabha Hospital in Kurla. They are: Sohel Ansari (18), Mohamad Ansari (14), Naimuddim Khan (28) and Sajid Ansari (16). Three others were admitted to Rajawadi Hospital. They are Farana Dilber Khan (28), Dilber Amnulla Khan (38) and Shamin Muslim Khan (26). Municipal commissioner Ashwini Bhide said the structures had been built on government land and residents had been warned repeatedly about the danger. A civic official said the structures were unauthorised and notices warning residents about the risk to life had been issued as part of the BMC's annual pre-monsoon preparedness measures. Mayor Ritu Tawde announced financial assistance of Rs.4 lakh to the families of each deceased. Those injured will receive medical assistance up to Rs.50,000 each. Local corporator Vijayendra Shinde said asking residents of informal settlements to vacate before every monsoon does not address the question of where these families are expected to go. He said he has demanded that the surviving families be accommodated under the Project Affected Persons (PAP) rehabilitation framework....