LAHORE: Four people died and 40 were injured in rain-related incidents across Punjab over the past 24 hours as more heavy showers were expected across the province, according to rescue officials and local authorities.
Monsoon rains fall across the region from June to September, offering respite from the summer heat. They are crucial to replenishing water supplies and agriculture, and therefore, the livelihoods of millions of farmers and food security. However, they also wreak havoc by triggering deadly floods, landslides and displacement, particularly in vulnerable, poorly drained, or densely populated areas.
At least nine people lost their lives and many others sustained injuries as heavy monsoon rains lashed Lahore on Wednesday. The downpours caused widespread flooding and disrupted daily life in several areas.
“Over the last 24 hours, four people died and 40 were injured due to rain and winds across the province,” Rescue 1122 Punjab Spokesperson Farooq Ahmed said in a statement.
Those who sustained serious injuries were immediately transported to a hospital, the spokesperson said.
In Sheikhpura’s Mirza Virkaan village, a two-year-old and a five-year-old were killed and two others were injured when a roof collapsed, per the statement.
In Lahore’s Nishtar Colony, a 50-year-old man was killed when a roof collapsed, while two others were injured. A similar incident at a railway station in the city left a two-year-old child dead and hurt two others.
A child was also injured in the Sheikhpura district when a wall collapsed on Jandiala Road. Two people were wounded when a bamboo roof crumbled down in Jhamke village, while one person was hurt in a similar incident in Narang Mandi.
Four people were injured when walls and roofs collapsed in Vehari, while one person was injured in the district’s Chak No. 59WB when solar panels fell on them.
Three people were injured when a roof collapsed in Dera Ghazi Khan, while one person was wounded when a wall caved in in Mankera, a town in Sargodha’s Bhakkar District.
In Attock, a family of six was trapped in their house due to heavy rainfall and urban flooding, and was subsequently injured. Rescue personnel reached the site of the incident and moved everyone to a safe place after providing medical assistance, according to the statement.
Two people were injured in separate incidents when their motorcycle slipped in different localities of Lahore. In the city’s Ashiana Road, one person was killed when a TR girder fell, while two people were wounded in Ichhra’s Ganj Bakhsh when a roof collapsed.
Three people sustained injuries in roof-collapse incidents in Chak 5/4L’s Muzaffar Colony and Chak 6/4L in Okara. One person each was injured in Sahiwal’s Aurangabad and Al-Aman Garden neighbourhoods.
One individual was wounded when a roof collapsed in Sialkot’s Chak Gul Daska, while another was injured in Rajanpur district’s Kotla Malam.
Separately, in its daily report, the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) said Lahore experienced seven hours of continuous downpour on Thursday morning, recording the highest provincial tally with 140mm of rainfall.
Heavy monsoon rainfall is expected in most parts of Punjab over the next 24 hours, the daily report quoted PDMA Director General Irfan Ali Kathia as saying.
The second spell of monsoon rainfall is likely to continue till July 13, it added.
Sialkot recorded 77mm of rainfall, Gujranwala 67mm, Chakwal 65mm, Jhelum 64mm, Hafizabad 60mm, Gujrat 52mm, Mandi Bahauddin 47mm, and Attock 45mm of rainfall.
Faisalabad recorded 51mm of rainfall, Narowal 44mm, Okara 33mm, while Toba Tek Singh and Sheikhupura recorded 25mm each. Rawalpindi and Kasur each recorded 23mm of rainfall, Mangla 19mm, Sargodha 18mm, DG Khan 16mm, Jhang 11mm, Mianwali 10mm, Sahiwal 8mm and Murree 1mm of rainfall.
Heavy rainfall is predicted in Lahore, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Multan, Bahawalpur, Sargodha, Gujranwala, Dera Ghazi Khan, Sahiwal and Mianwali divisions, the report said.
Kathia instructed citizens to take precautionary measures and stay in safe places during thunderstorms.
