Jaipur, April 25 (IANS): An 8-year-old girl was killed and at least 22 people were injured when the roof of a water tank collapsed in Solankiya village of Barmer district around 600 km from here.

"The incident occurred at around 6 p.m. in Friday evening when some people, the majority of whom were women, had rushed to collect water from a 25 feet deep tank after hearing of water supply to the tank," a police official told IANS.

"As the tank roof collapsed, an 8-year-old girl died on the spot, while at least 22 were injured and four of them, who were critically injured have been referred to Jodhpur," official said.

"We usually get water supply once in 15 days during summers in border areas of Barmer district and on Friday when the supply started, women started shouting "pani ayya....paani aaya' (water has come...water has come) and rushed to the water tank. There was a mad rush to fetch water but suddenly the water tank roof collapsed with women falling in the tank that had just over 2 feet water at that time," P.S Rathore, an eyewitness and resident of a nearby village told IANS on phone.

Rathore said that the village has a population of over 2,000 and that the water situation is quite bad.

"People don't get water supply regularly. Villages are supplied water once in a week and during summers, it is sometimes once in 15 days that too only for one-two hours. For water, these villagers have to travel on an average of seven-10 km daily. The situation is very bad and the government must look into the matter," said Durgesh Singh Rajpurohit, a local scribe.