Pics by Rons Bantwal

Mumbai, Jun 25: Thursday’s downpour spelt doom for a family of 10 residing at Yusuf Pathan chawl in Kurla’s Qureshi Nagar. The 15-foot wall of their room came crashing down, killing three children and injuring the rest.

While one kid died on the spot, the other two succumbed while being shifted to hospital. The injured were rushed to Sion Hospital where five of them were discharged after treatment. “Zishaan Khan (4) died in the house, while his sisters, Shikha (8) and Ayesha (6), succumbed to their injuries before being admitted to hospital. Their mother, Sanjeeda Khan (25), is in a critical state,’’ a police official said.

Heena (18), Sanjeeda’s youngest sister, who sustained minor injuries, said, “We were asleep when the incident happened. At 2.30 am, the wall came crashing down. All of us started screaming for help, but amidst the chaos, no one realised that Zishaan was buried under the rubble.’’

Sanjeeda’s parents, Meh-mooda Begum (55) and Nasir Khan (60) had a miraculous escape. Incidentally, Sanjeeda had come to her mother’s place to attend a ceremony organised in the memory of her brother who died two years ago. “Had she not come for the ceremony with her kids, all of them would have been alive,’’ Heena said. Among the other injured are Sanjeeda’s second sister, Zeenat (35), and her two children, Armaan and Saimeen, both two-year-olds.

According to eyewitnesses, neighbours came to rescue the victims after hearing their screams for help and rushed them to hospital.

Incidentally, the chawl was declared a dilapidated structure by the BMC after which about 80 families were shifted to Mankhurd. “The family was among the 12 who weren’t allotted an alternative place,’’ a neighbour said.

Meanwhile, the Eastern Express Highway witnessed a pile-up in the evening when it was raining heavily. In a separate incident, the balcony of a flat in a building at Jawahar Nagar in Goregaon (W) caved in. Nobody was injured. On Pakhmodia Street, a part of a weather shed also collapsed.

Late on Wednesday, the staircase of a building at Memonwadi caved in. Eight people who were stuck on the third floor were later rescued by the fire brigade. Around the same time, a landslide was reported at Saki Naka and the perimeter wall of a chawl collapsed at Bhatwadi in Ghatkopar. No one was injured in the incident.

As many as 23 trees were uprooted due to heavy rains, officials said.