April 15, 2008	Tuesday	Rabi-us-Sani 8, 1429

LAHORE, April 14: Four people died and three others injured when a run-down three-storey building collapsed owing to the impact of an adjacent electricity transfer explosion at Madina Chowk, Lorry Adda, on Monday.

Lorry Adda supervisory police officer Mian Muhammad Riaz told Dawn that one-and-half-marla building, owned by Abdul Hameed, collapsed after an explosion in an electricity transformer.

“The actual cause of the collapse seems to be water seepage from a Hamam situated on the second floor of the building which had weakened its structure,” a Rescue 1122 official said.

The collapse with a big bang created panic among the locals who informed the police and the rescuers.

Three people identified as Younas Butt, owner of a tyre puncture shop, Syed Abdul Qadir Shah, a driver, and Adnan, Hamam worker, died on the spot while Abdul Waheed, son of the owner, succumbed to his injuries at Mayo Hospital.

Three injured, identified as Ghulam Rasool, Imran and Imtiaz, were also shifted to the hospital.

Soon after the incident, disaster team of Rescue 1122, ambulances of Rescue 1122 and Edhi and police rushed to the spot and launched rescue operation.

According to the rescuers, they took at least four hours to complete the rescue operation due to unnecessary gathering of locals and passers-by which created hurdles in the operation.

Meanwhile, PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif has expressed sorrow at the loss of life in the building collapse.

He directed party MPs and activists of the area to take all possible measures for the help of those injured and heirs of the dead.

SHOT DEAD: A schoolteacher was shot dead allegedly by rivals in Gajjumatta locality of Kahna on Monday.

The Kahna station house officer said Rozdar Khan, 55, was returning to his house from school when five to six people, riding a pick-up, opened fire on him. He received two bullets and died on the spot.

The SHO said Rozdar, a resident of Chitrali village of Narang Mandi, had an old rivalry with his relatives, including Ayub and Farhan. This rivalry had so far claimed several lives.

Both the families left Narang Mandi and shifted to different places to save themselves from each other.

He said Rozdar, whose two brothers had also been killed by rivals, was nominated in a murder case registered in the Manga Mandi police station in which three people of the rival group were murdered in November, 2007.

Rozdar absconded after being nominated in the last case, and shifted to Gajjumatta.

The SHO said an FIR had been registered against Ayub, Farhan, Arshad, Yaqoob and accomplices.

ACCIDENT: A 45-year-old man, Javed, was crushed under the wheels of a train in Mughalpura on Monday.

The body was shifted to the city mortuary.