Mason dead, three injured in Lyari building collapse

A mason died while his three co-workers sustained injuries on Saturday when they were demolishing a dilapidated two storey-building in the Lyari area but the structure caved in during their work.

SP Lyari Aftab Nizamani told The News that the masons were not trained to demolish a decrepit structure and the building collapsed when they struck vulnerable parts of the structure without taking precautionary measures.

The building was situated at Kachra Kundi Wali Gali near Mama Hotel. The owner of the building had hired the masons to demolish the decrepit structure in view of the Liaquatabad building collapse.

Five people, including a woman and a minor boy, were killed and nine others, including four women, injured after a four-storey building in Liaquatabad collapsed during the early hours of Tuesday.

The ill-fated structure caved in with a crash at 2am, when most of its residents were asleep. Following the collapse, clouds of dust enveloped the vicinity as people ran out of their houses to determine the source of the crash.

Initially, the locals themselves sorted through the rubble to pull out the trapped occupants, but rescue teams took over from them after arriving on the scene. The deceased and the injured were taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital and the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre.

The deceased were identified as 13-year-old Ayan Faisal, his 30-year-old father Faisal Abidur Rehman and 25-year-old Abdul Wahab. A man and a woman in their early 40s remained unidentified until the filing of this report.

The injured were identified as 45-year-old Shahjahan Wajid Hussain, her 45-year-old husband Wajid Hussain, 35-year-old Nazeer Hussain, 35-year-old Safdar Ali, 25-year-old Ali Hashim, 30-year-old Akbar Sajid, 30-year-old Arshad Abdul Rasheed, 27-year-old Zain Wajid and his 25-year-old brother Shoaib Wajid.

On a visit to the site, The News found that the building was constructed on 80 square yards. It was famous in Liaquatabad by the name of Taal Wala Chowk.

On the ground floor of the building the owner ran his own restaurant, namely Waseem Sheermal House. There were shops on the front side, while a cement block depot and a paan shop on the right and left sides.