Death toll from rain devastation in Karachi rises to 21

KARACHI: The death toll from the devastation caused by yesterday’s record-breaking monsoon rain in the port city has jumped to 21, according to police and rescue sources.

Women and children are among the deceased as several other people also got injured in rain-related incidents in the metropolis.

SSP East Sajjid Sadozai relayed three people drowned near the Lyari Expressway within the limits of Sachal police station. The incident occurred at around 9:00pm when a person and his son drowned. A local tried to rescue the two but ended up drowning himself too. Police and rescue teams have launched a search operation to find and fish their bodies out.

The police said at least seven people, four children and three women among them, were killed when a wall collapsed on them in Saima Square in Gulistan-e-Jauhar. In a similar incident, a person was killed in Ferozabad neighbourhood when a wall came down on him.

They said two people drowned in the Korangi River and Gadap after the torrential downpour triggered massive flooding in many parts of the city, rising the water level in stormwater drains. A person died of electrocution in Sukhan.

The police said a person drowned in Shah Faisal Colony while a disabled woman died from drowning when rainwater accumulated in her home in PECHS. Besides, a woman died after a wall collapsed in the city’s Ibrahim Hyderi locality.

A person drowned in Saad Colony while a wall collapse killed a person within the remits of Nabi Buksh police station.