Three members of a family were killed and two others injured when a wall of their mud house collapsed on them at Dwipkalar Moroi village under Patiya upazila of Chittagong early yesterday.

The deceased are Hasina Begum, 35, her daughter Sathi, 5, and son Sohel, 3, while the injured are Hasina's daughter Sabina, 9, and husband Shahjahan, 55.

Locals said all the five members of the family were asleep at their house on the bank

of Shikalbaha canal during the incident.

Due to heavy downpour on the preceding night, the tidal water of the canal swelled and hit the foundation of the mud house that led to

the wall collapse, they alleged.

Injured Shahjahan, a day labourer, said they went to bed at 8:30pm and soon fell asleep as it was raining heavily outside. "Then suddenly I woke up feeling pain in my legs and realised the incident of wall collapse," he said.

Hearing Shahjahan's scream, locals rushed to the spot and found the three dead on the spot. They immediately took the injured to Chittagong Medical College Hospital.

Mamun-ur-Rashid, a local, said that the house was not built on the bank rather the canal came close to it due to erosion. The

canal is expanding day by day, damaging the houses and threatening the lives of the people, he added.

Utpal Barua, sub-inspector of Karnaphuli Police Station, told The Daily Star that the dead bodies were buried without autopsies. An unnatural death case was filed, he added.