India, Sept. 8 -- A mole on his neck and a birthmark on his leg were all that helped Akshit's mother identify her 18-year-old son on Monday, a day after the building housing his paying guest accommodation collapsed in southwest Delhi's Satya Niketan.

Akshit, a first-year B.Com student at PGDAV College, had returned to Delhi from his hometown on September 5, just two days before the collapse. His mother, Sweta Singh Yadav, had spent days searching for a PG that would give her son basic comforts so he could focus on his studies.

But on Monday, instead of seeing her son return to his room, she arrived at AIIMS to identify his body.

"I had visited five or six paying guest accommodations in the area before choosing one for my son. I wanted ...