LAHORE: A man, his wife and two children died when the roof of their house collapsed in Shahdara due to rain on Wednesday evening.

Police and Rescue 1122 officials said an 11-year-old son of the deceased survived in the incident.

A police official said the incident occurred at Barkat Town, Main Stop of Shahdara where Ali Akhtar (40) was residing in two-marla house along with his wife Farzana, two sons Islam (11), Usman (5) and daughter Eman (3).

He said during rain suddenly the roof collapsed and all the five members of the family were trapped under the debris. The residents tried to rescue them but failed because they were poorly equipped.

A spokesperson for the Rescue 1122 said his department dispatched eight vehicles to deal with the emergency call about roof collapse incident. The teams, however, retrieved four of them dead while a boy was rushed to a local hospital where his condition was said to be critical, he said.

He said it seemed that the roof was made of mud and wood and deaths occurred largely due to suffocation because of rain and heap of mud.

RAIN: The city received intermittent rain on Wednesday.

Farrukhabad area recorded the highest rainfall (75mm), followed by 27 mm in Mughalpura, 23 mm in Johar Town, 22 mm in Airport and Paniwala Talab, and 19 mm in Jail Road.

A Met Department warning said that the monsoon would remain very active for another two days, producing heavy rainfall all over the country. All communities living in low lying areas and along storm water channels have been advised to remain very careful during the next two to three days.

Meanwhile, the Met Office’s Flood Forecasting Division has forecast floods in rivers .

Published in Dawn, August 27th, 2020