A pregnant woman and her three children died when the wall of the mud house they lived in collapsed in Patna City on the intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday.

The accident occurred in the Nagarpar area under Chowk police station.

The victims have been identified as Saavi Devi, 28, and her sons Neeraj, 10, Dheeraj, 8, and Golu, 4. Devi was in her eighth month of pregnancy.

Devi’s husband, Atish Paswan, daughter Sonali Kumar, 5, and brother Mantu Paswan, were also injured.

All of them lived in the one-room house, which they had rented. Atish and Mantu are construction workers.

“The incident occurred around 1am on Wednesday. The family was asleep. Saavi and her four children were on a bed, while Atish and Mantu were sleeping on the floor,” said a police officer.

He added: “The mud wall of the house collapsed after it became weak following heavy rain. The structure fell on the bed killing all except Sonali. Atish and Mantu survived as they were on the floor.”

Police claimed that they rushed to the spot as soon as they got the information about the mishap.

“Atish, Sonali and Mantu have been admitted to Patna Medical College and Hospital. Their condition is stable,” said the police officer.

He added: “We wanted to take the bodies for post-mortem but the family members were not willing. It took us a long time to convince them to allow us to take the bodies for post-mortem.”

The family was paid Rs 16,000 as compensation by the district administration.