KARACHI: Six people died in different parts of the city in separate rain-related accidents following the Wednesday downpour, bringing the death toll in two days to nine.

Three people died from electrocution, while two others died under the rubble of a warehouse sidewall when it collapsed in the early hours of Thursday. Besides, a policeman was killed after being run over by a truck when the motorbike he was riding skidded on a slippery road.

The heavy rain that lashed the city for four hours on Wednesday brought many weak buildings in different localities to the verge of collapse.

In the SITE area, four people who were sleeping along the wall of an industrial warehouse got trapped under its debris when it collapsed. Volunteers of charity organisations and personnel of law-enforcement agencies rushed to the spot and after making efforts for half an hour, they managed to rescue two people and retrieve the bodies of two others.

“At around 2.30am, the wall of a warehouse established on plot F-249 collapsed,” said an official at the Site-B police station. “As a matter of course, four warehouse workers were sleeping in two rooms along the same wall that fell on them.”

The rescue volunteers retrieved the bodies of 40-year-old Yaroob Khan alias Raj Mohammad and 30-year-old Yousafuz Zar and recovered Dil Nawaz and Asif alive from under the debris. The deceased and injured workers were shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital.

“The warehouse’s structure was already weak and the Wednesday rain eroded it further. This is the only reason we see behind the wall collapse,” said the official.

In Landhi, a 50-year-old policeman was killed after being run over by a truck when the motorbike he was riding skidded on a slippery road near Dawood Chowrangi, police said.

They added that they had detained the truck driver and impounded his vehicle bearing registration number T-1317.

“Constable Sajid Jameel was on his way home in the morning after completing his night-shift duty at the Landhi police station police,” said an official at the Quaidabad police station. “As he took a turn at Dawood Chowrangi, he fell down and was run over by the truck following him. We have arrested the truck driver, Fazal. But he denied his fault insisting that the victim’s bike skidded and the rider was run over accidentally.”

He said that FIR had not been registered against the driver so far, as investigations were still under way.

Three people died from electrocution in different localities of the city. While area police remained unaware of the incidents, the charity organisations and hospitals whose workers and staff handled the bodies confirmed the deaths.

“A 20-year-old man died from electrocution in a Kharadar street,” said an official of the Chhipa Welfare Association.

“Identified as Azeem, he had left home situated in the street submerged by rainwater in the morning. The body was shifted to the Civil Hospital Karachi.”

The Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) received the body of an unidentified man, in his late 30s, which was brought from Bhains Colony.

The area police were unaware of any such incident. “Electrocution has been determined as the cause of death. According to the initial reports shared by the charity workers, he was found dead inside a cattle pen in Bhains Colony,” said an official at the medico-health section of the JPMC.

Similarly, an identified man was brought dead to the Civil Hospital Karachi. The officials said that it was found that he died from electrocution. They said the body was shifted to the Edhi morgue for want of identification after legal formalities.

Courtesy by dawn.com