LAHORE, Aug 21: An elderly woman, her daughter and two granddaughters were buried alive when their house collapsed in the old city area on Monday. This is the seventh incident of building collapse in the city during the current monsoon season in which more than a dozen people have lost their lives and scores have been injured.

Shamim Bibi, 60, lived alone in her three-storey house in Kashmiri Mohala, Akbari Gate. Her daughter Munawar Bibi, 35, and granddaughters Ruqqayya, 12, and Mahnoor, 1, who lived in an adjacent house, were spending the night at her home when the building collapsed and the four inmates were buried alive.

Munawwar Bibi’s husband Nawaz, a trader of Brandreth Road, told reporters that the neighbours starting removing the debris a rescue team of 1122 and other civic agencies reached the spot hours later.

By the time the women were taken out, they had died, he said.

Relatives of the victims and people of the area later held a demonstration and chanted slogans against the government for late arrival of the rescue teams.