NEW DELHI, March 22 (Xinhua) -- The death toll in Tuesday's under-construction building collapse in India's southern state of Karnataka rose to 14 on Friday, and at least 10 people are still feared trapped under the debris, a senior government official told Xinhua.
It has been four days since the under-construction building collapsed in the Kumareshwar Nagar of the state's Dharwad district.
Relief and rescue work is still on at the site of the building collapse.
According to local media reports, voices of those trapped under the debris were heard on Thursday night, which means that there are chances of rescuing them alive.
Speaking to Xinhua over the phone, Dharwad Additional District Magistrate Suresh Itnal said that four more dead bodies were recovered on Thursday night, thus taking the total death toll to 14.
According to him, every effort was being made to ensure that those trapped under the debris were rescued alive.
Two people were successfully rescued on Wednesday night. They were perfectly fine with no major injuries, and walked back to their homes.
The district official further said that relief and rescue personnel were pumping oxygen into the collapsed building in order to ensure those trapped were able to breathe.
"It depends on the amount of will-power of the trapped. Those having strong will-power and able to breathe with the help of oxygen we are pumping in, will survive and have high chances of being rescued alive," Itnal had told Xinhua on Thursday.
According to him, 56 people had been rescued so far. The relief and rescue work is expected to continue for the next couple of days.
