Four hurt as building collapses during anti-encroachment operation

Four labourers of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) were injured on Friday after a building they were trying to demolish during an anti-encroachment operation collapsed.

The incident took place early in the morning in Orangi Town Sector 9-C. According to KMC Anti-Encroachment Senior Director Bashir Siddiqui, three labourers were initially pulled out of the debris and the fourth one was rescued later during a search operation. The injured workers were rushed to the Qatar Hospital.

Siddiqui said all four of them belonged to the KMC. According to him, they were injured while demolishing a building, Amina Masjid, a mosque construced over an illegally occupied land.

The KMC officer said that instead of heavy machinery, hammers and axes were being used to knock down the three-storey building, during which it collapsed. On Friday, the anti-encroachment operation continued along the Gujjar Nullah and Orangi Nullah. The local administration has already removed all the soft encroachments from the area. The KMC has now started removing concrete structures along the drains, according to Siddiqui.