NEW DELHI: Four people, including a woman and her three young children, were killed, and four others were injured in two separate rain-related incidents in the city on Friday morning.
In the first incident, a 28-year-old woman, Jyoti, along with her children Aryan (7), Rishabh (5), and Priyansh (7 months), died when a tree fell on their single-room house in Jaffarpur Kalan, southwest Delhi, following a heavy rainstorm. The neem tree collapsed onto the room, which was located near a tubewell.
The victims were trapped under the debris. Fire department officials received a distress call around 5.24 am and rushed three fire tenders to the scene, initiating a rescue operation.
By 8 am, the rescue operation was completed, and five people, including Jyoti’s husband Ajay Singh (30), were pulled out from the rubble. Singh, who suffered chest and wrist injuries, was immediately rushed to Rao Tula Ram Hospital.
However, Jyoti and her children were declared dead on arrival, the officials said.
Singh, who had recently moved into the house to save on rent, lost his entire family in the tragedy. A family friend, Kalicharan Singh, said that Ajay, originally from Kanpur, had been living in Delhi for the last 10 years working as a daily wager. “Ajay had recently shifted here to save money on rent,” Kalicharan said, adding that the news had devastated the family. In the second incident, three people were injured when a neighbour’s wall collapsed in Paparawat village, Chhawla, also in southwest Delhi.
The victims, Omprakash (41), his son Love (13) and Saurabh (15), were trapped under the debris when the wall fell at around 5.30 am. Fire department officials confirmed that all three sustained non-serious injuries and were out of danger.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Dwarka) Ankit Singh said Chhawla police station received a call about the wall collapse around 5.30 am. The injured were promptly treated and taken to a nearby hospital. The incident took place in the vicinity of Prahlad Mandir. The fire department also reported responding to fallen trees at 98 different locations across the city.
In another incident, a 25-year-old man, Ankit, was electrocuted early Friday morning at an under-construction site in Green Park Main. Around 4.30 am, the main gate of the plot became electrically charged due to a broken overhead wire from the colony’s power supply, damaged during a storm.
Ankit, who had sought shelter near the gate from the rain, came into contact with the electrified gate and suffered a fatal shock. A case has been registered under relevant sections, and a probe is on, said police.