Kolkata, Sep 5 : Three members of a family, including two children, were killed as a wall of their mud house collapsed at Mandirbazar area in the South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal on Friday.

The three killed included a 35-year-old woman and her two minor girl children. The police have recovered their bodies and sent them for post-mortem purposes.

As per initial information available, the mother, Brihaspati Karmakar (35), used to live with her two minor daughters, namely Sheela Karmakar (15) and Priya Karmakar (10), in a mud house in Kamarpara near Sardeshwari School in Mandirbazar Vidhan Sabha in South 24 Parganas district.

A local police official said that the three victims were at their home when the accident took place on Friday, with the wall of the mud house collapsing suddenly.

'They were buried under a pile of mud. Hearing their screams, neighbours rushed to the scene. The mud was removed, the three people were retrieved and taken to a local hospital. There, doctors declared them dead,' the local police official said.

The neighbours of the victim said that the woman was supposed to receive money for the construction of a new house for them under the state government's rural housing scheme.

The mud house they were residing in, and the wall of which collapsed on Friday, was acting as their interim accommodation. Probably, the wall of the mud house became weak because of the continuous rainfall during the last few days and finally collapsed on Friday.

The bodies of the victims have been sent for post-mortem examination, following which the reasons behind the death could be ascertained. The victim and her daughters were quite popular in the area, following which the neighbours appeared to be quite sad over the mishap.

/IANS