BAHAWALPUR: Nine members of a family, four children among them, landed in hospital after taking pudding at their home on Yazman Road here on Thursday.

Rescue 1122 said they received a call that nine members of a f amily at a katchi abadi on Yazman Road had fallen ill after taking pudding sent by a neighbour.

The rescuers shifted them to the Bahawal Victoria Hospital (BVH) emergency ward.

The rescuers said some of them regained consciousness and doctors were trying to save their lives. Those hospitalised were Zafar Iqbal, 36, Imran, 25, Hameed, 27, Ms Rafiya Bibi, 35, Ms Rabia, 25, Khadija, 9,Ashfaq, 12, Mushtaq, 8, and Zain, 3.

A team of the Baghdadul Jadid police reached the BVH for investigation.

ACCIDENTS: Three people including a couple lost their lives while four other people suffered injuries in two accidents.

Two motorists died and four others were injured when a car hit a truck whose driver applied emergency brakes while trying to save a motorcyclist near Channigoth, about 70 kilometres away from here, rescue official Abdul Raheem told Dawn. The car was going to Sadigabad from Bahawalpur.

Abdul Rashid, 60, and his wife Nasim Bibi, 55, died on the spot while the injured including the driver were shif ted to the Ahmedpur East THQ hospital. Nasim Bibi wasthe sister of Dera Ghazi Khan Regional Police Officer Chaudhry Muhammad Saleem.

In another incident, Sarfraz, 18, who worked as a labourer, was run over by a tractor-trailer at 106/DB village near Yazman, about 30 kilometres away from here. According to rescuers, Sarfraz was changing a tractor`s tyre and was run over and killed by another vehicle. The dead body was handed over to his family.

SIBLINGS DROWN: Two minor siblings drowned in a pond while playing outside their house at Basti Kamaldin of Khairpur Daha village, about 70 kilometres away from here.

Paraz, 7, and his sister Samina, 6, accidentally fell into a pond full of rainwater. Locals found the dead bodies of the two children.