RAWALPINDI: A woman and three of her children died while another went missing after a wall in their home collapsed due to heavy rainfall in Morgah in the early hours of Wednesday.
Police said the death toll from the incident could rise to five if the missing child’s body is found.
Rescue 1122 staff are still trying to find 11-year-old Abdul Wahab, who has been missing since this morning when his home was flooded.
Morgah Station House Officer (SHO) Malik Zaheeruddin Babar told Dawn that chances that the missing child will be found alive are slim.
Police and eyewitnesses said rainwater entered Riaz Ali Shah’s home after a wall collapsed because water had accumulated in the empty plot next door.
The investigating officer said Mr Shah, who is from Battagram, had been renting the house for 15 years. He lived there with his wives Dil Shad and Musarat Bibi. He had five sons and a daughter with his first wife and two sons with his second.
He said all the family members were sleeping on the ground floor of the house, which is located in a low-lying area.
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Musarat Bibi, 35, Inayat Ali Shah, 25, Nabeela Bibi, 20, and Zaheer Ali Shah, 10, died in the incident while Abdul Wahab is missing and presumed dead.
Rescue 1122 staff were able to rescue Liaquat Ali, 17, Zain Ali, 13, Ghazanfar Ali, 12, Iftikhar Ali and Riaz Ali Shah, 55. The survivors suffered some minor wounds and received first aid, while Dil Shad was taken to Benazir Bhutto Hospital and later discharged.
Separately, a boy was swept away in Nullah Leh in Dhoke Chiragh Din on Wednesday.
Rescue services said a group of boys were playing on the banks of the nullah when one of them slipped and drowned.