Roof cave-ins kill 4 in Moga, 8 die in Baddi wall collapse
MOGA/CHANDIGARH : Twelve persons, including five children, were killed as heavy rain and storm triggered roof cave-ins and wall collapse in Punjab and Himachal Pradesh on Wednesday.
In Moga’s Nihal Singh Wala subdivision, three persons, including a three-year-old girl, were killed after the roof of their house collapsed due to high-velocity winds . The deceased have been identified as Pal Kaur, 55, her son Gurpreet Singh, 23, and granddaughter Suman Kaur, 3. Suman’s five-year-old sister Kamaljit Kaur, who sustained critical injuries in the incident, is undergoing treatment at Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital in Faridkot. The two kids had come to spend holidays at their maternal grandmother’s home, said family sources.
In another rain-related incident, a 17-year-old girl, identified as Geeta, was killed as the roof of her house collapsed in Bedi Nagar locality of Moga. Geeta’s father Megh Nath, mother Reshma and sister sustained injuries in the incident.
Eight persons, including four children, were killed when a boundary wall of an abandoned factory collapsed on their hutments in Himachal Pradesh’s Baddi town, about 35 km from Chandigarh. The incident took place around 1am. The storm was so fierce that the 6-ft-high wall collapsed and a large number of migrant laboures sleeping in a cluster of ‘jhuggis’ adjacent to the wall in Saraj Majra village were buried alive.
The deceased have been identified as Asarfi, Maya, Asha, Nanha Sailesh, Priti, Santosh Kumar and Jamni, all migrant labourers from UP.
“They were residing on government land. They ignored advisories to vacate it,” Solan deputy commissioner Rakesh Kanwar said after visiting the site.
Nalagarh SDMAshutosh Garg said five persons died on the spot. “Three were shifted to ESI Katha but they succumbed to their injuries,” he added. Of the 9 injured, 7 were shifted to PGIMER and GMCH-32 in Chandigarh. Their condition is stated to be stable.
The remaining two are undergoing treatment at the community health centre in Baddi.