Wall falls onto guests taking shelter in India wedding, killing 22

A building wall collapsed onto guests at a wedding in western India, killing at least 22 people, police said Thursday.

The hundreds of guests were having dinner or assembling on the outdoor lawns when a strong dust storm blew into the area Wednesday night, forcing people on the lawns to go indoors. Then the 80-feet-long (32-meters-long) wall collapsed onto people inside the wedding hall, Bharatpur District Magistrate N.K. Gupta told reporters.

Another 28 people were injured and have been hospitalized, police officer Anil Tank told Press Trust of India.

The district is in Rajasthan state nearly 200 kilometers (125 miles) south of New Delhi.

A power outage hampered rescue work. It wasn't clear if the dust storm was a factor.

Building collapses are common in India, where high demand for housing and lax regulations have encouraged some builders to cut corners, use substandard materials or add unauthorized extra floors.

In 2013, a building being constructed illegally in Mumbai caved in, killing 74 people in the country's worst building collapse in decades.

Source: AP