PESHAWAR: Five children were killed and six others suffered injuries when they fell into a gutter in a residential compound in Sarband area on the outskirts of Peshawar on Tuesday.

Assistant commissioner Mumtaz Ahmad told mediapersons that five bodies had been recovered from the gutter. Rescue officials said that six children had received injuries. Children from the surrounding houses used to visit the compound for learning Holy Quran in the evening.

Witnesses said that an old well inside the house was converted into a gutter and covered with concrete slabs. They said that minor girls were sitting on the slabs when roof of the gutter collapsed all of a sudden. They said that all the children sitting on the slabs fell into the gutter.

Local people started rescue work to retrieve the minors from the gutter. An official of the Rescue 1122 told Dawn that local people had recovered five bodies before the arrival of rescue team at the site. The compound belongs to Imran, son of Didar Gul.

He said that rescuers searched the gutter and one minor girl named Kainat, daughter of Dr Bakhtiar, was rescued and shifted to Khyber Teaching Hospital. Five other girls who received minor injuries were discharged from the hospital after getting first aid. The bodies were taken to Hayatabad Medical Complex. Peshtakhara police station SHO Javid Akhtar said that an inquiry would be conducted into the incident.

Published in Dawn February 4th , 2015

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