New Delhi:
Arnica and Mansi lived in the building right next to the one that collapsed on Sunday in Delhi’s Satya Niketan area. Moments before the PG building came crashing down, killing seven people, the second-year Delhi University students recorded deep cracks that had appeared on the ceiling and walls of their room.
“Looks like it’s going to fall,” Arnica is heard saying in the video, which shows large cracks running across their room.
Moments later, the ‘HostelDaze’ PG building was reduced to rubble, burying students and labourers under the debris.
Arnica and Mansi, both 20, lived in the ‘Kanak Lata’ PG next door.
Speaking to NDTV about the trauma they experienced, the two students said they rushed out of their building as the neighbouring structure came crashing down.
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“We were inside our room when the building collapsed,” they told NDTV.
“Cracks had already appeared on the walls of our room. Cement and water started seeping through the cracks, which kept getting bigger,” they recalled.
#NDTVExclusive | Cracks appear in adjoining building seconds before Delhi building collapse#SatyaNiketan #DelhiBuildingCollapse pic.twitter.com/x0N17bVucd
— NDTV (@ndtv) September 8, 2026
Just minutes before the collapse, they realised something was seriously wrong. One of them began recording a video, saying, “This building is going to fall.”
“Suddenly, the wall next to our room collapsed, followed by the entire building.”
“It felt like a huge tremor. We thought our own building would also collapse. We ran for our lives, screaming at other girls to escape because initially, some of them did not understand what was happening,” they said.
The trauma of the incident was still writ large on their faces.
In the rush to escape, Mansi left her phone and belongings behind.
“Bricks were falling near my bed. I had a narrow escape. Bricks were falling all around. Had I been on my bed at that moment, they would have fallen on me,” Mansi said.
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The exit gate of their building was also blocked by debris. The students had to push it open together with others to make their way out.
They still cannot believe that the boys living in the next building are dead.
“Just an hour earlier, those boys were alive. An hour later, they were all dead,” an emotional Mansi said.
The screams and desperate calls of the students trapped under the rubble remain etched in their minds.
“We have barely slept in the last two days. The images of the collapsing building and the debris keep running through our minds whenever we close our eyes,” the traumatised students said.
“We can still hear the voices of the students who were buried under the collapsed building. Those voices are stuck in our heads. As if they are calling out, ‘Save us.'”
They had come to Delhi with big dreams. Instead, the PG tragedy has left them with a deep scar.
“We expected South Delhi to be a good and safe area, but instead we found ourselves living in an urban slum,” Arnica said.
Their PG building has now been declared unsafe and is scheduled to be demolished by the MCD on Wednesday.
