Malir wall collapse: three children killed as union council office wall falls on rickshaw in Karachi

Three children were killed in Malir, Karachi, on Friday 9 October when the wall of a union council office collapsed onto a rickshaw in the Bakra Piri area, ARY News reported, citing police and rescue officials.

What happened

The wall belonged to the office of Union Committee No. 2 of the Malir Town Municipal Corporation. It fell onto a rickshaw passing beside it. One child died at the scene and two died on the way to hospital. The children were aged 6, 12 and 13. A man was also injured and is in critical condition, and rescue teams took the injured to hospital by ambulance.

Police and rescue teams reached the site soon after. Police have opened an investigation; the cause of the collapse has not been stated.

Questions for the town administration

The wall was part of a public building run by the town municipal corporation, so the questions fall on the local government: when the structure was last inspected, whether residents had complained about it, and who was responsible for its upkeep. No official has commented on the record yet. We will add their response and the findings of the inquiry here.

It is at least the second fatal structural collapse in Karachi in nine days. On 1 October, a security guard was killed when part of an under-construction Red Line BRT bridge fell near Bait-ul-Mukarram Mosque in Gulshan-e-Iqbal.

If you see a dangerous wall or building

• Keep children and vehicles away from cracked, leaning or rain-soaked walls, especially boundary walls along roads.
• Report it to your town municipal corporation office and, in an emergency, call Rescue 1122.
• For a building, the Sindh Building Control Authority handles complaints about dangerous structures.