KARACHI: A woman and a girl suffered injuries when the roof of two floors of a British-era building caved in near Pakistan Chowk on Monday afternoon, police and rescuers said.

Arambagh SHO Salahuddin Qazi said that the roof of the third floor fell on the second floor, which also collapsed and fell on the first floor. As a result, two females came under its debris.

Rescue services rushed the scene and started removal of the debris and managed to recover Nighat Saleem, 40, and Ramsha Iftikhar, 16.

They suffered injuries and were shifted to the Dr Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital Karachi, where their condition was stated to be out of danger.

The area SHO said that the building was in a dilapidated condition. He said the police had called officials of the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) to check whether the building was liveable or not.

Meanwhile, the head of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation’s anti-encroachment department, Bashir Siddiqi, visited the scene and told the media that they would seal the building to avoid any untoward incident.

An Edhi Foundation spokesperson, whose volunteers recovered both the female from debris, said the two were relatives and they suffered wounds in the head.

The police said several flats of the building were already empty as people had left them due to the building’s dilapidated condition.

Published in Dawn, February 22nd, 2022