LAHORE: Three children died, while as many others injured, one of them seriously, when wall of a farmhouse collapsed on them in Badami Bagh area.

The incident occurred at Khokhar village where several children of the area were cooling off in a swimming pool at a farmhouse.

The initial police inquiries suggested that the dilapidated boundary wall of the farmhouse collapsed under the weight of some locals sitting on it.

As the wall collapsed, six of the children enjoying at the swimming pool got trapped under its debris, suffering multiple injuries.

The police said the adults present there immediately rushed to the site and rescued the children, besides calling the Rescue 1122 and police for help.

According to witnesses, a police team arriving at the scene started shifted the injured children to hospital with the help of locals before the Rescue 1122 staff reached there with ambulances. Most of the children suffered chest and head injuries, they added.

A police official said that one of the injured children died on the way to hospital, while the two others succumbed to their wounds during treatment.

He said the children who died in the incident were identified as Azhar, Saqlain and Dilawar, aged 12-13 years. The inured include Hamza, Abdul Basit and Sagar Ali.

He said one of the deceased, Azhar, was a resident of Kasur and had come to Khokhar village to spend summer vacation with his relatives. The other two were residents of the same village.

The police official said that of the injured children, two were discharged from hospital after treatment, while one was still there given serious head injuries he suffered in the incident.

He said the farmhouse owner, Malik Latif, had hired a contractor, Azam alias Kaka, to look after the swimming pool.

He said Azam fled the scene shortly after the incident, adding that the village residents, including families of the deceased children lodged protest against the swimming pool owner and demanded legal action against him.

Badami Bagh police lodged a case against the swimming pool owner and the contractor on the complaint of Muzamil Iqbal, father of a child who died in the incident.

Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2022