Five killed in Lahore roof collapse on wedding day

LAHORE: A marriage ceremony day turned into a tragedy day for the family of a book binder when the roof of his house collapsed, killing five women and injuring seven other people on Sunday morning.

Police said the book binder, Muhammad Jameel, had been living in a rented house on the back of Masjid Wazir Khan for the last three years. The marriage ceremony of his daughter was planned for Sunday. His relatives from Rawalpindi and other cities were also at house.

On Saturday night, the family arranged Mehndi function at a nearby marriage hall. At night, they returned home. Afnan, a relative of the victim family, told that some of the members went to sleep while others started celebrations and dancing to music.

Suddenly, the roof of the house caved in. First, the roof of the upper floor fell down. The roof of the ground floor could not bear the burden and it too caved in. He said that the roof collapsed with a big bang. Dust, darkness and screams spread all around and no one could comprehend what was going on.

Neighbours started rescue work, removed the debris and evacuated the victims. Rescue 1122 also reached there and shifted the victims to Mayo and Nawaz Sharif Hospitals.The deceased were identified as Tafseela, 40, her daughter Aqsa, 9, sister Dua, 35, cousin Mehwish, 28 and mother Parveen. The injured were identified as three-month-old Haram, one-and-a-half-year-old Ayyan, three-year-old Mah Noor, four-year-old Rehman, Nabeela, 30 and Jameel, 45.

Funeral prayers for the victims were held at Masjid Wazir Khan in the evening. A large number of people offered funeral prayers. The bodies of two victims were sent to Rawalpindi for burial.

A rescue official said that they faced a lot of trouble in rescue operation as they could not move their vehicles and machinery  through narrow streets. He said that they had to stop their vehicles near Masjid Wazir Khan and then walked to the incident place to carry on rescue operation.