Black Saturday: 12 lives lost in a day in Capital

The national capital on Saturday witnessed a series of tragic incidents that claimed 12 lives in different parts of the city. The day dawned with the news of brutal murders of a woman and her two minor daughters at 7 am allegedly at the hands of her husband in the Karawal Nagar area of Northeast Delhi. Barely two hours later, a wall of an old temple in Southeast Delhi’s Hari Nagar area collapsed claiming seven lives, all adults. In Khera Khurd village near Narela, a toddler died after falling into an open sewer. Around 12.20 pm, a massive fire broke out at a Shahdara hospital where one staffer died on the spot. Tribune Correspondent Rahul Gahlawat reports:

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Seven persons, including two children and two women, lost their lives while one suffered injures after the wall of a nearby temple collapsed onto shanties in the Hari Nagar area of Jaitpur, Southeast Delhi, following heavy rain on Saturday morning.

The victims, mostly scrap dealers living in shanties, were trapped after the wall of an adjoining temple collapsed suddenly, an official said.

The injured persons were shifted to a hospital where seven of them died, while one person, Hashibul, is undergoing treatment. The deceased have been identified as Shabeebul (30), Rabeebul (30), Muttu Ali (45), Rubina (25), Dolly (25), Rukhsana (6) and Haseena (7).

According to the police, they received a PCR call regarding the incident at 9:13 am, with the caller stating that “badi deewar gir gayi hai” and four to five persons were reportedly trapped inside the debris.

After getting information, the SHO, along with the available staff members, reached the spot within five minutes. Eight people were pulled out from the debris and rushed to hospital. A thorough search was carried out by Delhi Fire Services and NDRF teams, but no other persons were found under the debris.

Additional DCP South East Aishwarya Sharma and ACP Ravishankar also reached the spot to oversee the rescue operations. “There is an old temple here, and next to it are old jhuggies where scrap dealers live. The wall collapsed due to heavy rain overnight. We have now evacuated these jhuggis so that no such incident occurs in future,” she said. An FIR has been registered at the Jaitpur Police Station and a probe has been initiated, an official said.