Among the many things in the pile of debris that was removed by them were plates, bottles, broken pipes, twisted iron roads and others. Prefer HTon Google A Sunday that started just like any other day in Delhi's Satya Niketan, a residential hub housing several Delhi University students, turned tragic when a five-storey building came crushing down at around 1.30 pm, killing at least seven people, injuring dozens, and trapping several others as figures continue to rise amid uncertainty.Even when cranes arrived to move bigger chunks of the rubble, the locals and students continued removing the smaller parts to help the rescue mission. (Sanchit Khanna/HT Photo)When the building, which was being used as a boys paying guest accommodation, collapsed, it was the students and locals around the collapse site who became the first responders and started digging through the debris to rescue people as relief teams were still on their way.‘Formed a human chain, people started helping’Recounting what had happened, Abhishek Mishra, a first-year student at Delhi University's Law Faculty, who was near the building at the time of collapse, said that it felt like an “earthquake”."We heard a very loud rumbling sound and suddenly the chairs we were sitting on started shaking. It felt like an earthquake. Then we saw a huge cloud of dust moving towards the right," news agency PTI quoted Mishra as saying.Nikita Sharma is a Senior Content Producer with Hindustan Times. She is a Delhi-based digital journalist with five years of experience writing and editing news stories across beats including crime, politics, tech, trends and much more, both national and international. At Hindustan Times, she is part of the news team and focuses on breaking news, keeping a track of what is happening where, and chasing ever-developing news stories. She has a penchant for covering crime, geopolitics, and Indian politics with a keen eye for stories often overlooked in the daily news cycle. At Hindustan Times, she has extensively covered several key events including the US Presidential elections, Air India plane crash, Pahalgam terror attack and Operation Sindoor, US’ tariff war, and others. As a Delhi aficionado, she particularly enjoys roaming and writing about the national capital — its heritage, food, art and culture, and the many problems that come with it — the pollution, waterlogging, traffic, and more. Nikita did her Bachelor in Journalism and Mass Communication from GGSIPU and started working as a digital journalist in 2021. During her first stint, she covered hyperlocal news at a Delhi-based newsroom, writing and editing stories on builder-buyer conflicts, civic issues such as potholes, waterlogging, lack of facilities at hospitals in Delhi, crippling of the city during peak monsoon season. She also wrote features covering Delhi’s art exhibitions, heritage walks, artist profiles, museums, classical Hindustani music concerts and dance shows. She entered mainstream news in 2023 and has previously worked at NDTV.Read More