SUKKUR, May 3 A 15-foot part of the parapet of the Sukkur Barrage broke into pieces and fell into the River Indus when a pick-up rammed into it late on Saturday night.

Blinded by a violent dust-storm and power outage, the pick-up driver lost control over the vehicle and hit the parapet on span No20. The driver managed to escape along with the vehicle.

The executive engineer of Sukkur Barrage Zareef Khero confirmed the incident and said that some portion of the parapet had been broken and fallen into the river.

He said that divers posted at the barrage would pull out the broken masonry blocks on Monday morning, which would be fixed in place. He said that the drivers approaching the barrage from Rohri were unable to see traffic on the barrage. Therefore, convex mirrors would be installed at both ends of the barrage to prevent any untoward incident in future, he added.

Besides, he said that cat-eyes would also be fixed along the parapet and at the approach roads to prevent such incidents, which often took place during power outages.

Parapet is a low wall along the edge of a bridge to stop people from falling and span is the part of a bridge or an arch between one vertical support and another.

MAN DIES One Nizam Mahar, a petrol dealer who suffered severe burns on Thursday in a fire in his shop in Dad Leghari town, died in a Multan hospital on Saturday night.

Meanwhile, one Aziz Ahmed Rajput, a goldsmith, was deprived of Rs350,000 and a mobile set by armed robbers in Mirpur Mathelo on Sunday.

The robbers waylaid him when he was returning to Sukkur in the afternoon after collecting cash.