Cabbie killed, 6 injured after part of Delhi airport roof collapses

New Delhi: A cab driver died and six people were injured after a portion of a canopy at Delhi airport’s Terminal-1 collapsed on cars amid heavy rain early Friday, leading to suspension of flight departures, according to officials. Besides the roof sheet, the support beams collapsed, damaging the cars parked in the pick-up and drop area of the terminal. A search operation was conducted to make sure no one was trapped inside the damaged vehicles, they said. The injured have been admitted to Medanta Hospital near the airport. One of them was rescued from a car on which an iron beam had fallen.

He was later identified as Ramesh Kumar, they added. Work was underway to clear the debris. Deputy Commissioner of Police (IGI) Usha Rangnani said due to heavy rains, the shed outside Terminal-1 of the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA), spanning from departure gate no. 1 to gate no. 2, collapsed around 5 am, damaging four vehicles. One person died and six people were injured in the incident. All the injured are stable, she said.

Teams of Delhi Police, DFS, Central Industrial Security Force and National Disaster Response Force are present at the spot, the DCP said. A police official said the deceased was identified as Ramesh Kumar (45), a taxi driver and a resident of Rohini in Delhi.

The flight departures were suspended soon after the roof collapse incident. Passengers who were already inside the terminal boarded their flights, sources said. T1 has only domestic flight operations by IndiGo and SpiceJet. The airport -- which has three terminals T1, T2 and T3 -- handles around 1,400 flight movements daily.