Rescue operations are underway. An NDRF team has also reportedly arrived at Ghazipur landfill site in East Delhi to assist in rescue operations.

Edited by Debanish Achom

A giant, teetering pile of garbage caved in at a massive dumping site in Delhi this afternoon, which pushed a few cars, an autorickshaw and a scooter into a canal. Two people are dead and a few others are said to be trapped after an 80-foot heap crashed onto the road with such force that cars were thrown off the road.

A rescue operation has been on for nearly three hours at the site in Ghazipur, which is on the outskirts of the capital. A team of the National Disaster Response Force or NDRF has arrived to help in the rescue and large cranes are clearing the road of trash. A crowd gathered to watch the rescue attempts.

Five people have reportedly been rescued. Two bodies have been recovered from the Kondli canal in which the cars fell, said Ajay Arora, a district officer.

“People don’t bother…we have been complaining for years and years. Why are these dangerous dumps allowed to threaten our lives?” said an angry resident.

The garbage dump, overflowing with stinking, toxic trash that has gathered over years, collapsed around 2:30 pm.

The Ghazipur landfill site came up in 1984, and is the oldest of three landfills where Delhi’s garbage is dumped. The Ghazipur site caters to the waste generated in east Delhi, central Delhi and the old quarters of the city.

The Delhi Traffic Police has tweeted to say the road leading from the Delhi-Noida-Delhi Expressway towards the landfill has been shut down.