Four of a family die in Shahdara roof collapse

LAHORE:An incident of roof collapse claimed lives of four members of a family at Barkat Town, Shahdara, on Wednesday. An 11-year old boy, Islam Ali, was also injured. The roof a room of two-marla single story house caved in due to heavy rain when the family members were inside the house.

As a result, five members were trapped under the debris. Nearby people called rescue teams. At least 18 rescuers in eight vehicles responded to the emergency. They removed the debris and pulled the victims out of it. They were removed to a nearby hospital where doctors pronounced four of them dead. They have been identified as Ali Akhtar 40, his wife Farzana Ali 32, daughter Eman Ali, 4 and son Usman Ali, 7. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar has expressed deep grief over the loss of human lives due to caving in roof of a house in Barkat Town. He also expressed his heartfelt sympathy and condolences to the heirs of the victims and sought a report from the administration about the incident.

moderate rain: Moderate rain was witnessed in the City here Wednesday while Met office predicted more rain during the next 24 hours. The rain started early morning and continued till evening in spans. Field formations of Wasa were deputed on the roads and at 22 sore points to drain out stagnant rainwater as soon as possible. Wasa MD Syed Zahid Aziz said that emergency camps were established at various points while Wasa teams were also monitoring the situation of roads through the Safe Cities Authority.

Rain was recorded at various city localities, including Township, Faisal Town, Wapda Town, Wahdat Colony, Green Town, Ichhra, Mughalpura, Tajpura, Taj Bagh, Davis Road Circular Road, Bhatti Gate, Shahdara, Samanabad, Gulshan-e-Ravi and etc. However, Wasa teams drained out rainwater from the roads and cleared them without any hassle due to low strength of rain.

On the other hand, Met officials said that strong monsoon currents are penetrating in upper and lower parts of the country. A weak westerly wave is also present over upper parts of the country. They predicted that rain wind-thunderstorm is expected in most districts of Islamabad, Punjab, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Kashmir while at isolated places in Sindh and eastern Balochistan. Heavy falls is also expected in upper Punjab and Kashmir.

Rainfall was also recorded in other cities, including Dadu 142, Karachi (Faisal Base 134, Gulshan-e-Hadeed 122, Nazimabad 91, Saddar 88, Landhi 85, MOS (Old Area A/P) 81, University Road 79, Saadi Town 72, Masroor Base 68, Jinnah Terminal 67, North Karachi 50, Surjani 46, Kemari 24), Padidan 110, Thatta 89, Mohen-Jo-Daro 82, Larkana 66, Mirpurkhas 54, Shaheed Benazirabad 49, Jacobabad 23, Chhor 17, Mithi 13, Rohri 12, Sukkur, Hyderabad 06, Badin 01, Malam Jabba 108, Balakot 103, Takht Bhai 45, Cherat 38, Buner 23, Pattan 20, Dir 12, Kalam 11, Peshawar 10, Saidu Sharif 07, Kakul 06, Bannu 03, Rawalpindi (Shamsabad 102, Chaklala 64), Islamabad (City 98, Saidpur 34, A/P 31, Golra 29, Bokra 27), Attock 60, Murree 19, Chakwal 14, RY Khan 13, Sialkot (A/P 06, City 02),

Multan 02, MB Din, Narowal 01, Turbat 46, Lasbella 43, Khuzdar 38, Sibbi 27, Kalat 23, Quetta (City 10, Samungli 02), Panjgur 06, Dalbandin 04, Ormara 02, Kotli 37, Muzaffarabad (A/P 35, City 15), Garhi Dupatta 09, Rawalakot 03, Hunza 02, Bunji and Astore 01. Wednesday’s maximum temperature was recorded at Nokkundi where mercury reached 43°C while in Lahore, it was 34.5°C and minimum was 27.4°C.

Meanwhile, traffic jams and rainwater Wednesday caused troubles to the citizens in many areasof the City received heavy rain. Traffic flow remained badly disturbed particularly on Canal Road, Ferozepur Road, Jail Road, Multan Road and GT Road. The traffic flow was further hindered as motorcyclists took shelter under the underpasses. A number of major roads were inundated with rainwater resulting in traffic jams. Traffic crawled at a snail's pace as major roads were under ankle-deep water and some were under two to three feet deep water. The affected areas included Lytton Road, Mozang Chungi, Bagh Gull Bagum, Chouburji, Mcleod Road, Laxmi Chowk, Garhi Shahu, Jail Road, Davis Road, Safanwala Chowk, Smanabad, Multan Road, Naulakha, Islampura, Sanda, Subzazar, Nawan Kot, Sherakot, Gulshan Ravi, Shadbagh, Misri Shah, Wasanpura, Badami Bagh, Lorri Adda, Ravi Road, Shafiqabad, Lower Mall.

Minor clashes between the motorists were also witnessed in the day-long traffic mess as many of them lost their temper in utter frustration.