DADU, July 21: A 70-feet breach occurred in Nara branch at RD-8 near Tharari Mohabbat town on Sunday morning, inundating the Tharari Mohabbat police station, along with its resident colony, Tharari Mohabbat Hospital, 400 houses, four villages and four thousand acres of agricultural land.

The breach occurred in the branch, originating from Rice Canal, owing to the overflow of water.

Half of the Tharari Mohabbat town, including the police station, 25 quarters of the police department, government hospital, along with its four bungalows, Baban Kalhoro, Bhand, Najibuallah, Solangi, Gopang, Nareeja, Shaikh, Shaheed and Budha localities, Mitho Machhi and Juma Nareeja villages, and several road were flooded. Some 30 houses also collapsed.

The water was heading towards other parts of the town.

The police were shifting the residents to safer places in police mobiles. The police blocked three roads surrounding the town and were diverting the water.

When contacted, the executive engineer, Rice Canal, Salahuddin Abbasi, said some influential landlords had tempered with the watercourse originating from the Nara branch at RD-8 and had attempted to install a water pump directly from the the branch as a result of which the breach was occurred.

He said the breach would be plugged within 24 hours.

The secretary for irrigation, Mir Mohammad Parhiar, told this correspondent that the chief engineer of Sukkur Barrage, Syed Noor Mohammad Shah, was appointed as the enquiry officer to investigate the incident.