MUMBAI: A massive 120 x 120-feet billboard collapsed on a Chheda Nagar-based petrol pump in Mumbai's Ghatkopar area due to gusty winds and unseasonal rains that trapped more than 100 persons, killing at least 14 persons and injuring 75 others. According to eyewitnesses when people were caught in heavy rains and winds at around 4 pm scores of them rushed to take shelter at the petrol pump where several vehicles including bikers were already lied up for refuelling and the billboard suddenly collapsed giving no forewarning, trapping several people who were present at the site.

According to civic officials, the 250-tonne hoarding erected by Ego Media was illegal and was on a plot leased to the Police Welfare Corporation by the Maharashtra government's Police Housing Division. Despite obtaining permission for all four hoardings, including the collapsed one, from the Assistant Commissioner of Police (Railways), Ego Media failed to secure authorisation or a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the BMC before installation. 

Chief Minister Eknath Shinde visited the spot of the hoarding collapse incident in Ghatkopar late in the evening and ordered a structural audit of all hoardings in Mumbai city. He said that the government will probe the incident, and the people responsible will face action. 

Meanwhile, in another unrelated incident, a metal scaffolding of a parking lot at an under-construction building at Wadala also collapsed with about 3 being reportedly injured. 

The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has said that the wind speed at Ghatkopar where the hoarding crashed on Monday evening was 96 kmph on Monday while in the other parts of the city, the wind speed recorded of upto 60kmph, due to which the entire Mumbai was engulfed by a sudden and intense dust storm, plunging the city into darkness.  The storm wreaked havoc on transportation, forcing local trains and airport services to grind to a halt. The weather conditions were so bad that the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) was compelled to suspend flight operations temporarily due to low visibility and strong winds.