Daily Times

QUETTA: At least four people including two children were killed and over 20 injured in rain related incidents due to heavy rains on Monday which played havoc in the metropolis.

“The city receives around 60 millimetre rain within one and half year time, breaking record of last several years,” an official of the Metrological Office said on Tuesday.

The torrential rain with hailstorm started lashing Quetta city and suburbs at around 2pm and continued for one and half hour. The entire city roads and streets were inundated as flash flood coming from mountains surrounding Quetta valley entered houses, markets, shops, hospitals, government, and private buildings.

The official sources said that among four killed were two children identified as Ashraf and Asghar and over 20 others injured in rain related incidents in different localities of the metropolis.

Sources said, “An 11-year-old child fell down in an open main hole of the sewerage system in Sariab Road area and died”. Two persons were swept away by flash flood in Kharotabad area, sources added.

The entire city was deprived of electricity after several electric transformers exploded and electricity pylons fell down. The flash flood entered in wards of Sandeman Civil Hospital and one of the boundary walls of the hospital collapsed. All main city roads including Jinnah Road, Prince Road, Liaquat Bazaar, Qandhari Bazaar, Brewery Road, Spiny Road and others received heavy rains and look like ponds and streams.

Thousands of vehicles were struck up in the flash floods and hail storm shattered the windowpanes of the vehicles. The people were even forced to stay under shelters as trees and sign boards were falling down in torrential rain with hailstorm and windstorm.

According to Quetta Electric Supply Company (QESCO) officials, two dozen of feeders tripped in the rain. Dozens of mud houses were collapsed and damaged in slums and downstream areas of the city. The officials said that several parts of the city were yet deprived of electricity on Tuesday.