NEW DELHI: Three civil services aspirants, two females and a male, died after the basement of a coaching centre in Delhi's Old Rajinder Nagar flooded following heavy rainfall. The incident occurred at Rau’s IAS Study Circle in central Delhi's Old Rajinder Nagar area at Bada Bazar Marg. The coaching centre was running a library in its basement.

The rescue operation continued past midnight, and the bodies of two female students and a male student were retrieved from the site during the rescue operation by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), local police, and fire department, the official said. The deceased have been identified as Shreya Yadav from Ambedkar Nagar in Uttar Pradesh, Tanya Soni from Telangana, and Navin Dalwin from Ernakulam in Kerala. All three were between 25 and 30 years old.

According to the Delhi Fire Department (DFS), a call about waterlogging was received from Rau's IAS Study Circle at around 7 pm on Saturday regarding the basement of the coaching institute being flooded. "The caller told us that there was a possibility that some people were trapped. We are investigating how the entire basement was flooded. It appeared that the basement got flooded very fast, which caused some people to be trapped inside," DCP (Central Delhi) M Harshavardhan told reporters.

Student aspirants held a night-long protest, demanding immediate action from the authorities following the incident at the coaching institute. On Sunday, the Delhi Police said that the facility's owner and coordinator had been arrested for allegedly violating regulations by using the basement as a library.