Wall collapse kills 24 during wedding celebration in India

Prime minister ‘pained’ by accident in which five children were among the dead

A woman cries after a wall collapsed during a wedding, killing at least 24 people, in Bharatpur in India’s Rajasthan state. Photograph: Getty Images

Thu May 11 2017 - 09:58

Twenty-four people were killed and 30 injured in India when a wall collapsed on a crowd of people celebrating a wedding, police said on Thursday.

The 3.6-metre high wall collapsed late on Wednesday because of heavy rain, crashing down on the wedding party during dinner in a marriage hall in the western state of Rajasthan, police official Bharat Lal Meena said.

Five children were among the dead, Meena said.

Prime minister Narendra Modi said in a Twitter post he was pained by the accident. Weddings are elaborate affairs in India with even people of modest income inviting large numbers of guests to receptions, often in purpose-built halls.