At least 14 killed after 100ft tall billboard collapses in thunderstorms

This is the moment a billboard – larger than an Olympic swimming pool – fell onto houses and a fuel station during thunderstorms.

At least 14 people were killed and 75 others were injured in the collapse in India’s financial capital Mumbai on Monday.

Footage shows the 100ft construction billowing in the wind before collapsing next to a road in the eastern suburb of Ghatkopar.

Video of the aftermath shows the roof of the fuel station had come to parts under the weight of the billboard.

Multiple vehicles can also be seen under the web of twisted metal and aluminum.

At least 25 people are feared trapped under the collapsed structure, and a search and rescue mission is ongoing.

In the hours after the incident, dozens were pulled out from under the crumpled hoarding and rushed to hospital. Some 31 have been discharged since then.

Pictures from the scene show emergency teams can working through the rubble late into the night.

The agency owning the billboard did not have a permit from Mumbai authorities to put up the hoarding, the municipal body said in a statement.

The hoarding measured about 1,338 square metres, much bigger than an Olympic pool’s 1,250 square metres – and nine times more than the maximum permitted size for a hoarding.

The municipal body said it has instructed the agency to remove all its hoardings immediately.

‘To prevent such accidents from happening again, instructions have been given to conduct a structural audit of all hoardings in Mumbai and immediately take down dangerous ones,’ Eknath Shinde, the chief minister of Maharashtra state of which Mumbai is the capital, said in a post on X.

India has heavy rain and severe floods during monsoon season between June and September, which brings most of South Asia’s annual rainfall.

The local weather department had predicted that moderate rain spells and gusty winds.

There were temporary flight disruptions at the Mumbai airport, with at least 15 flight diversions and operations suspended for a little over an hour.

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