VEHARI, June 4: Eight members of a family, including a woman and her four children, drowned when their car fell into Khader canal while crossing a bridge on the Pakpattan-Bahawalnagar road, 100km from here, early on Saturday morning.

The Kabula police told Dawn on phone that a family belonging to Jamleera village in Burewala tehsil was returning from the shrine of Baba Frid Ganj Shakar in Pakpattan. While crossing the Machi Singh bridge over Khadar Link Canal, the driver, also a member of the family, lost control over the wheel.

The dead were identified as driver Fida Husain (45), Kaneez Fatima (45), her daughters Anam (14), Amara (10) and Eram (7), son Mushan (5), Maira Ayoub (12), daughter of Ayoub Sabir, and Masan Ayoub (8).

Ayoub Sabir (45) and Faisal Bashir, another son of Fatima, were rescued and admitted to a local hospital. All the bodies were fished out of the canal and sent to the DHQ hospital Pakpattan.