HYDERABAD: Several families perished when a three-storey building collapsed on an adjacent two-storey structure in the Choori Para (bangle lane) locality of Hyderabad on Tuesday afternoon.

Eleven bodies had been retrieved and 18 injured victims were rushed to the hospital till last reports came in at around midnight while neighbours, volunteers and relief agencies workers were busy removing the concrete debris in search of more victims.

The locality is part of Ilyasabad, a congested and densely-populated area with narrow lanes.

It houses a number of semi-commercial buildings owned or inhabited by families engaged in bangle-making for years.

They started relief and rescue work before the official and non-governmental relief agencies workers, police and Rangers could arrive at the scene of tragedy. Rescuers found it very difficult to bring in ambulances, fire-engines and relief machinery due to narrow access to the site.

Most of the deceased and injured victims appeared to be relatives and included three families. The three brothers, Mohammad Khalid, Arif and Mohammad Rashid, lived in the ground-plus-two building and had their bangle-making factory on the ground floor. Some labourers were hired by them. The occupants of the adjacent building that collapsed were also related to the brothers.

The injured victims receiving treatment at the Liaquat University Hospital (LUH) said the three-storey building collapsed with a bang all of a sudden and the entire structure was reduced to rubble. There was a hue and cry all around and crowds of people rushed to the site to retrieve the stranded people once the concrete rubble settled within the next few minutes.

It is yet to establish as to how many people are still trapped under the rubble.

There were no proper arrangements made by the district administration to rescue the victims immediately after the building collapsed. Rescuers were seen using hammers to crush the concrete and cut the iron rods of the structures.The deceased victims were identified as Mohammad Rashid, 32, son of Mohammad Mukhtiar, his 30-year-old wife, Asma Rashid, and two-year-old son, Abdul Basit; Hoor Bano, 38, wife of Mohammad Khalid, and her daughter, Misha Khalid, 18; Arif, 40, son of Mukhtiar, Akhtar Ali, 66, son of Nunnay Khan, Maryam, 7, daughter of Akbar Hussain, Komal (infant) daughter of Mohammad Shahid, Konain, 6, daughter of Mairaj Siddiqui, and a labourer, Amir Baloch, 50.

Moving scenes were witnessed at the hospital where the victims were being shifted one after the other. The health facility kept resounding with the wails of several hundred relatives of the victims. Police and Rangers personnel were making hectic efforts to calm them down. A state of emergency was declared at the hospital to deal with the situation.

Most of the deceased suffered fatal head injuries while the injured victims had their bones and skulls fractured.

The injured victims were Mohammad Khalid, 40 and his two sons, Jibran and Haris, aged 17 and 13, respectively; Rabia 20, Ghazanfar, 2, Nabi Bukhsh, 60, Qamar Jahan, 45, Asma, 2, Noor Bano, 50, Gulzana, 35, Samandar Khan, 30, Nimra, 3, Aana, 30, Yousuf, 6, Haider Ali, 24, Ali Raza, 15 and Zafar, 16. A two-year-old injured boy was yet to be identified.

Hyderabad Commissioner Jamal Mustafa Syed has asked the deputy commissioner to head a committee for a thorough inquiry into the incident.

Published in Dawn, September 3rd, 2014