Six killed, ten injured as rain wreaks havoc in KP

PESHAWAR: Six people were killed and 10 injured while four houses collapsed and a suspension bridge broke down as rain wreaked havoc various parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Thursday.

Due to heavy rain, the house of one Dost Muhammad caved in at Sarwarabad locality of the Jalala area in the Mardan district early Thursday morning. Three small children were killed in the incident while their mother and four siblings injured. The roof of the old house got collapsed due to torrential rain when the family members were asleep. Residents and the staff of Rescue 1122 reached the spot and retrieved the three bodies and five injured from the debris. The dead were identifies as eight years old Faiza, three years old Sana and infant Waqas.

The injured included Niamat, 12, Saba, 7, Asma, 2, Abbas, 6, and their mother Basirat Bibi, 50. In another such incident, 8-year-old Mazhar died and three others were injured in a house collapse incident in Qudratabad area in the Mardan district. One person was killed in a house collapse incident in Buner district while another person was killed due to lightning in Swat. The wall of a school fell in Nat Mera area of Barikot tehsil of the Swat district. Sidra,10, daughter of Azad Khan, was killed while Sher Ahmad, son of Habibur Rehman and Sameera, daughter of Azeem Khan, sustained injuries in the incident. The injured were shifted to the hospital. Meanwhile, a suspension bridge linking Shangla and Torghar districts collapsed because of windstorm and rain. Like other parts of the country, the rain started Wednesday afternoon continued throughout the day on Thursday with intervals. Mountainous areas of the Upper Dir and Chitral received snowfall and plains areas received rain owing to which weather turned chilly.

Lowari tunnel, Kumrat, Thal, Doog Darra, Gowaldi Darra, Sheringal, Qulandi, Dobando Darra, Upper Brawal, Usheri Darra, and other mountainous parts received unexpected snowfall. The Dir city too received a snowfall. While plains areas including Dir, Bibyawar, Darora, Wari, and others received rain which continued throughout the Thursday. Despite created chill and coldness, the residents of the mountainous areas enjoyed the unexpected snowfall in March. Till filing of this report, KP in Upper Dir had received 54-millimetre rain followed by Lower Dir with 37, Cherat 27, Parachinar 25, Malam Jabba 23, Saidu Sharif 20, Mirkhani 19, Takht Bhai 18, Bannu 12, Peshawar 9, Kakul 07, Drosh, Balakot and Chitral 06, Kalam 04, DI Khan and Pattan 02 millimetre while in Kashmir Muzaffarabad got 16, Rawlakot 12 and Garhi Dupata 8 millimetre shower.

The Meteorological Department had issued a warning of torrential rainfall in Islamabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Potohar and Kashmir from Friday to Saturday. According to the warning, the rain may cause flash floods in Zhob, Musa Khel, Loralai, Dera Ismail Khan, Bannu, Karak, Waziristan, during Thursday to Friday and in Dir, Malakand, Swat, Peshawar, Mardan, Hazara and Kashmir Friday/Saturday. Due to torrential rain, there is a risk of landslide on the highways of Kashmir, Gilgit, Malakand, Dir and Hazara while extreme rainfall, hailstorm and wind-thunderstorm may cause a partial loss of wheat crop in KP and Upper Punjab.