In a heartbreaking incident, six children, including four sisters, lost their lives due to suffocation in Sargodha on Monday, according to Rescue 1122. The tragic event occurred in Chak Number 12, Jinnah Colony, when the children accidentally got trapped inside a wheat storage drum while playing.
Rescue officials said the family had just cleaned the wheat drum and stepped out, unaware that the children had climbed inside. The kids, thinking it was a game, lay down in the drum and were unable to get out. As a result, they suffocated to death. The victims were identified as Saima, Amna, Sawera, Dua Fatima, Sonia, and Maryam.
This marks the second such tragedy in two days. Just a day earlier, two siblings also died from suffocation after getting locked inside an iron drum while playing hide-and-seek in Burjwala village. These repeated incidents have raised serious concerns about child safety in rural households.
In January, a similar case took the lives of five children from one family in Punjab. The cause then was smoke inhalation from coal fires used for heating. Authorities and rescue officials are now urging parents to keep potentially dangerous items out of children’s reach and to raise awareness about household hazards.