Phuli held firmly her two little kids -- Kawsar, aged 3 and Farzana, aged one and a half -- and was waiting for a break in the downpour to get out and find safety.

Then all hell broke loose. Within seconds, a large chunk of earth of the hill came down with an enormous weight to bury alive the mother and her two children. It was too late when rescuers from fire brigade, volunteers from Action Aid and some locals rushed to the spot.

With incessant rain still beating down on the rescue workers' heads, they were engulfed in a heartbreaking scene as they retrieved body after body from under the muddy debris.

The father, who was not present at the time, came to know of the tragedy hours after it had happened, at 12:30pm.

Tragedy also struck the family of Mohammad Shahjahan, a small trader at city's Hamzarbag area under Panchlaish thana.

Since early morning, the rain made Shahjahan's entire family marooned inside the house.

The unthinkable happened at around 10:30am. As the water was rising sharply, Shahjahan's sister made an attempt to take his 4-year-old son Mohammad Rafiq out to safety.

As soon as she came out of the house, a strong surge of water detached her from Rafiq and swept him away.

Rafiq was a class VII student at Hamzarbag Rahmania High School.

Rescuers and locals searched the entire area, but could not find Rafiq till writing of this story at around 5:00 pm.

Fire brigade office at Agrabad received another distress call at around 1:30pm about a minor boy slipping into a canal at Sholakbahar in Panchlaish thana. A team of fire fighters made it to the scene in no time, but found none till writing of this report.