Karachi boy falls into open manhole, search operation underway

KARACHI: Rescue efforts were underway on the second consecutive day on Sunday to recover an eight-year-old boy, Ayan, who fell into an open manhole in Karachi’s Gulshan-e-Iqbal area, ARY News reported.

According to the details, the teenage boy, identified as Ayan, had fallen into an open manhole in Karachi’s Gulshan-e-Iqbal 13D area on Saturday evening and could not be pulled out after the passage of 24 hours.

The family members of the missing boy held a protest and blocked all kinds of traffic from Liaquatabad to Hasan Square.

The protestors claimed that the boy had fallen into open manhole due to the negligence of the district administration and rescue work was launched late to recover the drowned child.

In a statement, the assistant commissioner district east Karachi said that more divers have been called to recover the missing child. He held Karachi Water and Sewerage Board responsible for the incident.

In a similar incident that occurred last month in Karachi, a woman and her rescuer suffocated to death in an open manhole in the Orangi Town neighbourhood. The deaths occurred after the woman fell down the manhole and a man jumped after her to rescue her.

The woman accidentally fell down the manhole near the Bhashani Bakery in Orangi Town Sector 14C within the limits of the Pakistan Bazaar police station.

According to the police, there was poisonous gas in the manhole, and the deaths had occurred due to suffocation.