LAHORE, Aug 24: Two men died and 15 others suffered injuries when three storeys of a 10-storey building collapsed in Shahalam Market on Thursday. The rubble lying on the seventh floor poses a threat to the remaining structure and adjacent buildings while local authorities do not have required machinery and trained people to remove the collapsed beams.

The approved structure, it was learnt, was of five storeys. The owners added more floors illegally. Witnesses told Dawn that construction work on the top storey of the Lodhi Arcade, known as China Towers, one of the tallest buildings in Shahalam, was under way when its three top storeys collapsed at 4.20pm. Eleven labourers were trapped under the rubble while the debris fell on the road injuring four passers-by and damaging six four-wheelers, over a dozen motorcycles and cycles parked there.

The Rescue 1122 teamed reached the spot through an adjacent building and rescued the trapped people. Rescue teams continued search as some labourers had said some of their colleagues were still under the rubble.—Staff Reporter