MUZAFFARABAD: A man was killed and his colleague was injured after a building, partially damaged by the earthquake in Mirpur district, collapsed on Saturday night, an official confirmed on Sunday.

The incident occurred in Akhtarabad village, some 10 kilometres on the outskirts of Mirpur city, where three labourers were sleeping in a building that housed a poultry farm.

The building was partially damaged by the Sept 24 temblor, divisional commissioner Chaudhry Muhammad Tayyab told Dawn.

The fragile structure caved in at about 2:30am, trapping all three beneath the rubble, he said.

Rescuers cut the concrete slabs with sledgehammer and other tools and retrieved all three by the crack of dawn – two of them with wounds and the third completely unhurt, he said.

The injured were brought to the Divisional Headquarters Hospital Mirpur, where one of them, identified as Nasarat Hussain succumbed to his injuries at 10:30am.

The deceased belonged to Charhoi tehsil of Kotli district.

The other injured person, who belonged to Sudhnoti, was allowed to go home after treatment.

Mr Tayyab said the local owner of building, identified as Muhammad Hussain, was reprimanded for letting his employees sleep in a dangerous structure in an area that was still receiving aftershocks.

Even at 10:26am on Sunday, an aftershock of 3.8 magnitude, with its epicentre 12 kilometres northwest of Jhelum at a depth of 15 kilometres, jolted Mirpur and its adjoining areas, scaring the already panicked residents.

“I was preparing breakfast when the house jolted and I rushed out of home out of fear. So did our neighbours,” said Shabnam Kauser, a schoolteacher in F-3 neighbourhood of Mirpur.

Mr Tayyab said no losses had been reported from the aftershock.

Published in Dawn, October 7th, 2019