ISLAMABAD, June 24: As many as eight people, including four children and a newly-wed couple, died in different incidents during the heavy rain which hit the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad on Monday, police and witnesses said.

In the first incident, a couple was killed, while a woman, her husband and their 10-year-old daughter were injured after their house at Golra collapsed on Monday morning.

Shaheen Bibi and her husband, Manzoor Ahmed, were staying at her sister’s house when the roof caved in. All inmates, including Shaheen Bibi’s sister Afreen Bibi, her husband, Khalid Mehmood, and their daughter, Saima, were trapped in the debris.

The people from the surrounding area rushed to the scene. Shaheen and her husband were found dead, while her sister, brother-in-law and their daughter sustained injuries. They were shifted to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences where their condition was said to be stable.

In the second incident, four children, aged between five and eight, were swept away in Soan River, while 11 others of the same family, including a woman, were rescued by the locals, police and rescuers said.

The bodies of two children were recovered from the river at Chontra, while divers were making efforts to trace the remaining bodies, Malik Afsar, the rural area magistrate, who was leading the rescue operations, confirmed.

Zafar Hussain, the father of one of the missing children, told Dawn that he was from Muzaffargar and had set up a camp alongside the river in search of plants and bushes for preparing medicine.

He said the children, including his five-year-old son Faratul Hussain, three nephews — Ijaz (8), Majoo (7), and Kaika Khan (7) — were bathing in the river.

After some time, he brought the children to his makeshift home and then went out to work. In his absence, the children slipped away to take bath in the river and met with the tragedy, he added.

“About 11 to 12 children, including a woman Falda Bibi, who were also bathing in the river when the four ill-fated children were swept away, had been rescued,” the magistrate added.

The divers from Navy and Rawalpindi police have been called for searching the missing boys. People residing along the river banks have also been requested by the rescuers to inform the local police if they spot the bodies.

Similarly, an unidentified person drowned in Nullah Leh at Gawalmandi, the witness said.

The body of the man, who appeared to be in his 60s, was fished out by the Civil Defence rescuers, they added.

In another incident, a 15-year-old boy was swept away in Soan River near Morgah while his three companions were rescued, police and rescuers said.

Waqas Ahmed, a resident of Tench Bhatta, accompanied by his friends — Zahid Iqbal, Mohammad Bashir and Nasir Mehmood — came to the river to have a picnic.

They jumped into the river despite the fact that the water level had risen to alarming level due to Monday’s rain. Waqas, who did not know how to swim, started drowning shortly, while his panicked friends started calling out for help, the police said while quoting the survivors.

On hearing the hue and cry of the boys, the people from the surrounding area rushed to rescue them. Three boys were rescued while Waqas drowned. Till the filing of this report, efforts were underway to recover his body.