TARIQ SAEED
PESHAWAR Around a dozen more people were reported killed as the heavy rains coupled with windstorm continued wreaking havoc in the provincial metropolis and other parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa thus taking the death toll to almost 20 including minors in the last 72 hours. Besides, some three dozen people also sustained serious injuries and fifty houses were damaged during this period, Confirmed the Provincial Disaster Management Authority. The spell of rains and snowfall subsided in the northern parts of Balochistan, while it continued to pour in parts of Punjab, KP and Azad Kashmir. Due to snowfall, the linking roads of Galiyat were closed, while Nathiagali, Chhangla Gali, and Ayubia received 1.5ft of snow. Two children were killed when roof of a dilapidated house belonging to a labourer situated in Kagga Walla area, in the outskirts of Peshawar, collapsed due to heavy rain burying two women and five children under the debris. Rescue 1122 teams reached the spot and retrieved the trapped persons from the rubble in in ured condition and shifted them to hospital where two children succumbed to their injuries. The deceased were identified as three-year-old Asim and six-year-old Yaseen while Javairia, Tehseen and Muniba were among the injured. Likewise, two children were reported killed and eight other members of the same family received serious wounds when a roof of their house collapsed in Nowshera district on Saturday. The rescue sources said the roof caved-in due to continuous rain in the area. The bodies and the injured were moved to a nearby medical facility. A day earlier the rooftop of a house collapsed in Jalala area of Mardan during windstorm and rainfall leaving two children dead, while four other persons sustained injuries in the incident. Reports reaching here spoke of more casualties in various districts of KP where four more people died while roof tops of the houses, mostly in slum areas, caved in. As per the situation report released by the Provincial Disaster Management Authority on Saturday some 47 houses were damaged while two houses have been completely destroyed by the heavy rains.
