Excerpt from 'Hayat Al-Qulub, Vol. 1':
The people realized that Divine punishment had descended on them. Archangel Gabriel then instructed them to flee the town with his supporters after a part of the night had passed. He told him that none of them should look back and added that should his wife look back she would invite the same wrath as the townsmen.
There was a scholar among the people of Lut. He warned the villagers that the wrath of Allah was upon them as repeatedly forecasted by Lut. He exhorted the people to surround Lut and not let him escape. As long as he is among the people the chastisement would not descend on them. The natives surrounded the residence of Lut from all sides. Archangel Gabriel told Lut to escape from amidst them.
'How can I do that?' asked Lut 'They have besieged my house from all sides.'
Archangel Gabriel planted a pillar of light before him and said that they should leave by its support and must not at any cost look back. Lut and his people left the town from underground. His wife looked back and Almighty dropped a stone upon her killing her instantly. When the morning Sun rose, each of the angels left the city by four different directions and dug the ground around the city up to its seventh layer. The town, which was in the centre, was raised so prominently that the inhabitants of the celestial world could hear the cackling of hens and barking of the village dogs.
The whole city was then turned upside down and it crashed on its inhabitants. The Almighty rained coated, multicolored stones on them from the first heaven or from hell.