KHAPLU: At least five people were killed and four others injured after a passenger vehicle fell into Neelum River in Azad Kashmir on Sunday, local officials said.
The vehicle was en route to Tau Butt from Kel when it plunged into a 200-feet ravine and ended up into the river near the Karimabad area in Tehsil Athmuqam, according to rescue officials.
It carried around 20 passengers, of which seven were still missing.
“So far, we have recovered five dead bodies,” Muhammad Mukhtar Ayyub, the Rescue 1122 in-charge for Neelum Valley, told Arab News. “Among the deceased was a 12-year-old boy. No woman was in the vehicle.”
Along with Rescue 1122 members, police, army, district administration officials and local volunteers were also participating in the search and rescue operation.
“We have also called in a team of professional divers to recover the missing persons,” Ayyub said, adding the injured persons had been shifted to hospital.
Manzoor Ahmad Butt, assistant commissioner of the Neelam district, told Arab News an emergency had been declared at Civil Hospital Tau Butt.
“The injured persons are in a stable condition,” Butt said. “There were seven tourists in the vehicle who hailed from Multan district of Punjab and the rest were locals.”
Butt said he was monitoring the rescue operation and the local community was making extensive efforts to recover the missing passengers.
Road accidents are common in Pakistan, where traffic rules are rarely followed and roads, particularly in many rural areas, are in poor condition. In the mountainous Gilgit-Baltistan region and Azad Kashmir, road tragedies are daily news.
Last month, at least 20 people were killed and over a dozen others were injured after a bus plunged into a gorge in GB.
In May 2023, nine people were killed in an accident involving a tourist vehicle in Azad Kashmir’s Neelum Valley.
