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KARACHI: Hopes for rescue of several people believed to be trapped under the rubble of a collapsed five-storey building in Lyari began to fade late on Thursday night as rescue workers found it hard to remove the debris of Qasr-i-Ruqayya amid inaccessibility of heavy machinery to the affected parts and vulnerability of the structures around.
Six persons had already been confirmed dead and over a dozen injured.
Among the nearly half a dozen multistorey buildings in Street 6 on Shah Abdul Lateef Bhitai Road of Musa Lane, Qasr-i-Ruqayya collapsed in the first half of the day when most residents were away from their apartment homes to work.
Most of the 18 apartment victims were women and children. The man who owned the building also lived in one of the flats, and was lucky enough to rush with his family to safety before it actually collapsed.
The area police and rescue officials said the building collapsed shortly after 11am but when vibrations were felt a few minutes earlier a few families evacuated their loved ones before the tragedy struck.
Abdul Ghafoor, the building owner, was one of them. With three stitches between his neck and the left shoulder, he was among the persons who were injured when the falling debris hit them.
“I was standing outside the building when I felt some vibration and heard a strange noise,” he said lying on a bed in the Civil Hospital Karachi. “I realised that something was going to happen to the building and I rushed to my apartment on the fifth floor. I have nine members of my family, including my three-year-old grandson. Alhamdolillah, I managed to do the job and by the time we came out of the building, it had almost collapsed. I and my wife, Parveen, received a few minor injuries.”But luck did not work for Muhammad Mohsin and his family. He lost his elder brother and an eight-year-old sister in the incident while his four other siblings were admitted to the orthopaedic ward of the CHK.
“We are seven siblings. Two died and four are badly injured. I with my parents survived as we were out to work. The bodies of my 24-year-old elder brother Bilal and eight-year-old sister Areesha were recovered shortly after the incident,” he said.
His other injured siblings included 22-year-old Komal, Rabia, 13, Adil, 16 and Kiran, 17. The rescue workers found two more bodies from the debris after hours of efforts, who were later identified as 60-year-old Hawwa Bai and 27-year-old Imran.
The injured included six-month-old Muskaan and four-month-old Ali. The doctors said a majority of the victims being treated at the CHK had no life-threatening injuries.
“Most of the injured were hit by pieces of concrete mainly on the upper torso,” said a senior medico-legal officer of the hospital, Dr Aftab Channar. “Some of them also suffered fractures, and they were referred to the orthopaedic ward. A few infants also received injuries but none of them is in a critical condition.”
After sunset the rescue efforts started to slow down though the authorities said it was not due to lack of resources but because of care to save the lives of trapped people.
“We have a complete unit of the Urban Search Rescue Centre with all necessary gadgets,” said Masood Alam, the chief of the local government's municipal services. “The building was raised on a 400-square-yard plot but it was situated in such a narrow lane that we have access to the debris only from one side and three other ends are blocked by huge structures.”
He said heavy machinery initially could not get access to the affected area and then it could not be used properly due to some crucial reasons.
“The structures around the collapsed building are also vulnerable. If we use heavy machinery, it would definitely cause vibration which may lead to another such incident. So we have evacuated people from the buildings around and are using cutters and mainly operating manually,” he added.
He said the rescuers also had a pack sniffer dogs, which would be used only after an access is found to the rubble to launch a search for the trapped people.
“There are definitely people trapped under the rubble but we can't confirm their number. As we talked to building residents and make our assessment, more than 30 people are still missing and there are fat chances that they are trapped under the rubble,” he added.
