Five-year-old girl rescued from debris of collapsed building in Sukkur

SUKKUR: A five year old girl was successfully rescued alive from the rubble of a three-storey collapsed building in Sukkur, while the death toll reached up to seven on Friday.

Reports said a five years old girl Navida was rescued alive after 21 hours from the debris besides four bodies were also recovered. The three of them were identified as Shaheen w/o Arsalan, Khalid Mahamood, and Murtaza Mugal. Muhammad Ali Mughal family member of the victims told that as many as 27 members were living in three flats. He said he and four other family members were out of the home when the building was collapsed.

Mughal said four people were still missing in the rubble, adding that owing to the difficulties in a rescue operation, the advance search and rescue team of national disaster management authority (NDMA) came from Karachi to join rescue teams of Pakistan Army, Rangers and Edhi and other civilian authorities.

Reports said the heavy missionaries were used for removing debris and rescuing the entrapped victims, while sniffer dogs were also being used to speed up the rescue operation. On the directions of the Chief Minister Sindh, Syed Murad Ali Shah, MPA Syed Farrukh Shah along with district administration and PDMA officials visited collapsed building.

Farrukh Shah expressed satisfaction over the rescue operation and said Sindh government has provided all the modern machineries and equipments. He said the victims of the collapsed building were condoled by the CM Sindh. The Sindh MPA said an emergency had been declared at Civil Hospital Sukkur, where the injured were being treated at government expense, and if needed, would be shifted to Karachi or other hospitals for further treatments.

Earlier, the deputy director PDMA, Mohammad Juman Thebo said a five-year old girl was rescued from the rubble who miraculously survived after 21 hours. The deputy commissioner Sukkur said notices were circulated to the owners of 71 buildings that declared dilapidated and was asked for evacuation.