LAHORE: A man and his two minor daughters were killed, while three others injured when the dilapidated roof of their rented house collapsed in Gawalmandi on Tuesday.

The deceased were identified as Ikram, 40, his daughters Noor Fatima, 5, and Dua, 3, while the injured Shaukat, 17, Iqbal, 40, and Mansha, 40, were shifted to MayoHospital with minor injuries. The house was situated in Qabarwali Gali near Baraf Khana Chowk.

Shaukat told Dawn at the hospital that his brother Ikram was playing with his two daughters when the house suddenly jolted and within moments the roof caved in.

`I gained consciousness in the hospital and was told by acquaintances that first the third storey`s roof collapsed on the second one`s and then the two ultimately fell onus,` he said.

Ikram`s stepson Waqas said their rented house had been affected by rains and their family alerted the owner about the condition. He said he also suggested his father to move to another house. He said his father had talked to the owner to get their house repaired too as another one of the same owner`s house adjacent to their`s was being renovated.

He added labourers at the adjacent building had placed some con-struction material on the roof of their house that caused the collapse.

Injured labourer Muhammad Iqbal said he was busy in construction work when the wall of the adjacent house fell on them following roof collapse of the three-storey house. He said the house was in a dilapidated condition and there were several cracks in the walls.

Iqbal also said they had removed the roof of the house they were working on and placed its debris on the roof of the adjacent house where the family resided. It could not bear the burden and resulted in collapse.

A Rescue 1122 team reached the spot and recovered the bodies from the debris. The bodies were later shifted to city morgue.

Investigation Officer SubInspector Majeed said the house was in a dilapidated condition and there were no mechanism to check the century-old buildings. He said a case of negligence would be registered against the owner of the house for not renovating the building.