Five killed in Mardan roof collapse incidents

MARDAN: Five persons, including two children died, and four others were injured in separate incidents of collapsed houses in the district due to heavy rains, hailstorm and windstorm during the night, officials said on Tuesday.

The hailstorm and windstorm caused heavy damage to standing crops, orchards, trees and properties in an area stretching from Katlang to Sawaldher and Bakhshali in rural Mardan.

The officials of the Rescue 1122 said a house collapsed at Farsh in Cheechar village in Katlang tehsil in which Zakirullah, his wife, and their twins, three years old son Abdul Samad and daughter Sapna, were killed. They were buried under the debris but the neighbours and villagers found out only in the morning that the roof of the house had collapsed. Grief enveloped the village and mourners wept when the bodies of four members of the family were brought for the largely attended funeral.

Another house collapsed at Afzalabad in Gaddar village in which one Qalandar Shah, 70, died and 18-year old Hamza sustained injuries. The third incident occurred at Babani village where a woman and her two children were injured when the roof of their house collapsed. The Recue 1122 teams shifted the injured to the hospital.

In Katlang bazaar, the structure of the Arabi Mosque suffered heavy damage due to the natural disaster. The rains and windstorm came at 10 pm and was followed by heavy hailstorm for half an hour. Locals said it was the heaviest hailstorm in the area since 1980. In Shakar Tangi, Sawaldher and in Katland and Bakhshali villages, the sugarcane and maize crops, orchards and vegetable fields suffered heavy losses. The electricity supply was disrupted and properties were damaged.

The local elders and villagers demanded that the government should order a survey of the damage caused by the rains, windstorm and hailstorm and compensate the affectees.