The deceased are: Siroz Khan (32), his wife Niroz Khan (26), Ramchandra Gyanchand Gupta (48) and his son Pandu Gupta (16). The injured are: Ayesha Khan (30), Pinky Agarwal (20), Mumtaz Meeram (16), Sheetal Sawant (30), Devi Nair (25), her sister Kalyani Nair (17), Ajay Patil (21), Pradeep Rajput (18) and Mohammed Salim (22).

Ayesha Khan and Pinky Agarwal were critically injured, with the former sustaining damage to both kidneys. They have been admitted to Lokmanya Tilak Memorial General Hospital at Sion inMumbai.

Sheetal Sawant, who lived on the first storey, says she was preparing to make the morning chappatis when she heard a dull thud at around 7.30 am. ``Since the floor quivered, I ran out to the common balcony when the floor sank, taking me down,'' recalls Ayesha, who was completely distraught. Though she escaped with minor injuries, she is certain her husband is among the three persons still trapped in the rubble. Ajay Patil (21) a door-to-door salesman, who lived on the second storey, adds: ``I saw the staircase go down and instinctively jumped along with the falling debris.''

Residents and neighbours say the fire brigade arrived about 45 minutes after the crash while the Kalyan municipal staff came at 9 am. Hence, the actual rescue work began only at 10 am, says the local corporator, Vaman Mhatre (Shiv Sena). ``They did not even have the equipment to cut through the concrete and metal. Even the KDMC staff arrived past 9 am and had come without any equipment.'' He pointed out that that actualrescue work could begin only at 10 am. ``Mumtaz was trapped for two and a half hours under the debris,'' he pointed out.

Admitting that the fire brigade was not equipped to deal with such emergencies, Dombivli Fire Officer Dilip Gund told Express Newsline: ``The bigger problem was getting the JCB machine inside the crowded area to remove the debris.''

Surrounded by buildings cheek-by-jowl, Chintaman Mhatre Chawl is not easy to access from the main road. In fact, Gund says, rescue workers had to break a portion of the neighbouring Girnar building's compound wall to gain access to the ill-fated chawl.

`H' Ward Officer, P T Dhole, under whose purview the chawl falls, says the Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation had got the building forcibly evacuated a year ago. ``Within two months, the original tenants brought in sub-tenants who occupied the building. When I visited the building last month to tell the residents about how they were playing with their lives they laughed at me.'' In fact, the Khancouple who died today had moved in only on Tuesday, neighbours say.

There over 80 strucutres which have been declared dangerous by the KDMC in Dombivili (W), 42 of them in the vicinity of Chintaman Mhatre Chawl.

Radhabai Mhatre, daughter of the deceased Chintaman Mhatre who owned the building, has been arrested under Section 304 of the Indian Penal Code for criminal negligence leading to death.