KARACHI: A woman and her three children were killed on Thursday morning when a wall of an under-construction project collapsed in Orangi Town while a youth was electrocuted in another area as the city came under a fresh spell of heavy rainfall of the ongoing monsoon season, said police, rescue services and other officials.

The wall of the under-construction housing project belonged to Naya Nazimabad, a senior police officer told Dawn on condition of anonymity.

The wall fell on the house in Orangi Town that received 39mm rainfall on Thursday.

The housing project was being constructed on the hilly side of Orangi, MPR Colony, when the wall fell on the residential area.

As a result, a mother and her three young children — two sons and a daughter, aged between four and 10 years — came under the debris and died.

Owner, project director booked over charges of manslaughter

The incident occurred at around 8.30am.

Rescue teams removed the debris and recovered the bodies.

A Chhipa spokesperson identified the deceased as Syeda Khawa Rasool, 28, and her children namely Naseeb, 10; Bashir; four, and Mobina, seven.

The bodies were taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital to fulfil medico-legal formalities.

West SSP Suhai Aziz said that the incident might be related to heavy rain in the area.

She added that accumulated rainwater had weakened the wall of the project, which collapsed and fell down on the house.

The police have registered a case against the owner of the project namely Samad Habib and project director Aijaz on the complaint of the victim woman’s father-in-law, Mohammed Arif, over charges of manslaughter.

No one has been arrested so far.

Youth electrocuted

A 22-year-old man was electrocuted in Gulshan-i-Maymar on Thursday, said rescue services officials.

An Edhi Foundation spokesperson said that Mohammed Irfan died of electric shock inside his house near Bengali Mor.

Rainy weather to continue

The Met department forecast on Thursday partly cloudy and humid weather for the city with chances of rain-thunderstorms over the next two days (Friday and Saturday).

The maximum temperature is expected to range between 33 degrees Celsius and 36 degrees Celsius.

“A monsoon low now lies over eastern Sindh and adjoining Rajasthan (India). Under its influence, widespread rain-thunderstorms with a few moderate/heavy falls and occasional gusty winds are likely to occur in Karachi, Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Tharparkar, Badin, Thatta, Umerkot, Sanghar, Benazirabad, Sukkur, Larkana, Khairpur, Shikarpur, Dadu and Ghotki districts from today till Sept 11,” says the Met department’s advisory.

The weather system causing rain is likely to exit the region by Saturday night.

Meanwhile, the department recorded maximum rainfall in Surjani Town (64mm) on Thursday till 8pm followed by North Karachi (58.1mm), Gulshan-i-Maymar (42.3mm), Orangi town (39mm), Nazimabad (33.2mm), Saadi Town (28.1mm), Quaidabad (20.4mm), Keamari (15mm), PAF Base Masroor (17.5mm), University Road (12.3mm), Jinnah Terminal (6.6mm), Gulshan-i-Hadeed and PAF Base Faisal (4mm each) and Old Airport area (3.5mm).

DHA Phase II received the lowest rainfall (2.7mm) in the city.

Published in Dawn, September 10th, 2021