At least 10 people were killed and 15 others were injured when a passenger bus, traveling on a dilapidated stretch of road, fell hundreds of feet down onto the bank of River Jhelum in Pakistan during the early hours of Saturday.

The accident took place near Zaminabad village, some 24 kilometers south of Muzaffarabad, on Muzaffarabad-Kohala road, at around 2:30am, Muhammad Qadeer, an official posted at the nearest Chattar Klass Police Station told Dawn over telephone.
 
The ill-fated bus, with around 25 persons on board, had left Rawalpindi for Chakothi, the last prominent village of Jhelum Valley along the Line of Control.

Qadeer said the entire staff of his police station had rushed to the site of the accident to carry out rescue operations.

According to him, at least five persons had died on the spot while three others lost their lives before they could reach a hospital.

Around 17 others, including an infant, were injured and hospitalized in Muzaffarabad, where two succumbed to their injuries, he added.

Qadeer said the part of the road from where the bus fell had been damaged, allegedly due to erosion by the River Jhelum, and reckoned that it might be the cause of the accident.

However, another police official, who asked not to be named, said the road was quite wide and the driver could have avoided driving on the extreme left.

“It appears that he had dozed off and the vehicle went out of his control,” he said, Dawn reported.

(SAM)