When Salamatu Koroma, a mother of four children, went to bed on Sunday night, 28 July, she hardly fathomed it would be her last night. Fate, it is said does not ill. And true to form, the young mother and one of her four children yesterday met their tragic death after a perimeter fence collapsed onto their makeshift apartment (pan bodi) in the early hours of Monday morning. Residents of the neighbourhood of Tengbeh Town, west of Freetown, woke up to news of the fatal incident amid uncontrolled wailing.

According to eyewitnesses, the deceased and her 3 year-old son, Alhaji Koroma, were instantly killed when a perimeter fence, very close to their home, collapsed at 6:00am while Muslims - who are observing the holy month of Ramadan - were in the nearby mosque doing the dawn prayers.

A resident, Pa Santigie Kanu, told Concord Times that the heavy rain started around 4:00am and didn't cease until 8:00am. He said the tragedy could be blamed on the bad drainages and the fact that the natural waterways have been blocked by human activity, especially illegal erection of buildings along paths through which rain water used to flow.

Another eyewitness, Mahawa Bangura, said she saw both the deceased and her husband, Hassan Koroma, earlier taking three of their children to safety, as they were afraid the fence could collapse.

"They had already taken the three children outside the veranda, at that time only Alhaji (the dead son) was inside, when she (deceased) entered the house to take him out and we just saw the fence inside Salamatu's room," she explained.

So, fortunately for the husband and the three children, they survived. But he could not control his grief, as he mourned the tragic death of two precious members of his family.

At the scene of the tragedy, it was observed that the heavy torrent of rain had forced its way and broke into a nearby house, adjacent to the home of the deceased. This forced the collapse of the concrete fence which together with the rain water slept through the home of the deceased.

Police came to the scene and took the corpses to the mortuary.