Roof collapse at Delhi airport kills one, injures 8

Heavy rainfall and winds brought down a roof at the main airport in New Delhi yesterday, killing one person and disrupting flights from a domestic terminal, while flooded streets and traffic snarls threw daily life out of gear in India’s capital.

The airport area received about 148.5 millimetres of rain over three hours in the early morning, more than the average for all of June, according to India’s weather office. Experts blame climate change for extreme heat followed by heavy rain.

The city of 20 million people, who faced searing heatwaves earlier this month, received 228.1 mm (9 inches) of rainfall at its main Safdarjung weather station in the 24 hours ending 8:30am (0300 GMT) on Friday, a 266 percent departure from normal.

A portion of the canopy and supporting beam at the departure area of Terminal 1 collapsed and flight operations were shut down until 2:00pm (0830 GMT), India’s aviation minister told reporters.

The entire terminal, one of three at the country’s biggest and busiest airport, was evacuated and an inquiry ordered into the collapse, said the minister, Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu.

Rescue work had been completed and eight injured people were taken to hospital, Atul Garg, the director of Delhi Fire Service, said.

At least eight flights were cancelled and 47 were delayed while departures from Delhi airport were running late by an average of 40 minutes, according to data from flight tracking platform Flightradar24.

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