LAHORE: A labourer died and another injured during digging at the construction site of Gulab Devi underpass on the Ferozepur Road here on Sunday.

According to officials, Gul Meer, 25, and Rafi Ullah, 16, were busy digging at the construction site when a huge quantity of earth fell on them.

On being informed of the incident, Rescue 1122 teams rushed to the site, pulled out the two labourers and shifted them to the Lahore General Hospital (LGH), where Rafi Ullah died, while Meer was said to be stable.

Police shifted the dead body to the morgue and started investigation.

A couple of days ago, three labourers had died and two others injured due to landsliding during excavation at a nullah in the DHA’s Phase-9.

The labourers who died on the spot were identified as Altaf, Bilal and Riaz, while the injured – Rafique and Ahsan – were shifted to the LGH.

One of the rescuers told Dawn that these incidents were occurring because the construction companies were not taking precautionary measures.

He said as per building rules shoring was a must for underground digging, but unfortunately such precautions were ignored by the builders, resulting in such incidents.

He also deplored a lack of inspection of construction sites by the government officials to control curb incidents.

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2021