Delhi Airport has suspended all flights from Terminal 1 after a part of the forecourt’s canopy collapsed early Friday following heavy rain, killing one person.

All arrivals and departures from the terminal are being rescheduled until further notice, Delhi Airport said in a post on X. IndiGo and Spicejet, which operate out of Terminal 1, will now operate from the other two terminals at Delhi airport.

One of eight people injured in the incident has died, said Atul Garg, director of Delhi Fire Services. Rescue operations at the airport are over, he added.

The injured person passed away while undergoing treatment in the hospital, Press Trust of India reported earlier, citing police officials. A number of people were injured and promptly provided with medical assistance at the scene, while some were taken to the hospital, India’s civil aviation ministry said in a post on X.

Compensation of two million rupees (US$24,000) will be given to the deceased, and 300,000 rupees to injured people, said Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu, India’s aviation minister.

India’s top aviation authority is carrying out a “high-level” investigation into the collapse, while all other airports will undergo a “detailed structural inspection,” Murlidhar Mohol, India’s junior aviation minister said in an online post.

Delhi Airport is one of the busiest in the world, handling 72 million passengers in 2023, according to Airports Council International. Terminals 1 and 2 handle domestic passengers, while Terminal 3 handles all international travellers.

Video posted on social media showed several cars crushed under the collapsed canopy, which covers the terminal’s dropoff and pickup area.

All up, the airport handled 6.5 million passengers in May across its three terminals, up 8% from a year earlier.

The incident comes less than four months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi presided over the opening of an upgrade of the terminal, to allow it to handle 40 million passengers a year, up from 17 million previously.

Delhi’s Safderjung weather station recorded 228 millimetres (nine inches) of rain in the 24 hours to 8:30am local time on Friday morning, according to the India Meteorological Department. Heavy rains are forecast for parts of Delhi until at least Tuesday, it said.

More than 40% of all flights departing from the three terminals in Delhi have been delayed, while 42, or 11%, of flights have been cancelled, as of 2:39pm, according to data from Flightradar24.com.

IndiGo, which is operated by InterGlobe Aviation Ltd, separately said it has cancelled all flights from the terminal. “This unplanned situation has also led to operations across the network being impacted,” an IndiGo spokesperson said in a statement.

Shares of GMR Airports Infrastructure Ltd, which operates the Delhi airport, fell as much as 2.7% on Friday.

Separately, a part of the canopy at Jabalpur Airport in central India collapsed Thursday.

  - Bloomberg