17 killed as coach plunges into ravine on Karakoram Highway

CHILAS: At least 17 people have been killed as a passenger coach plunged into a ravine on Karakoram Highway on Sunday night, ARY News reported.

According to the details, the coach was heading to Rawalpindi from Gilgit-Baltistan when it skidded off the road and fell into the ravine within the limits of Lotar Police Station.

The District Police Officer (DPO) has confirmed 17 causalities in the accident and added that they were facing difficulties in rescue operation due to darkness and steep rocks.

Police and rescue officials are shifting the bodies and the injured to the hospital. The police officials were of the view that overspeeding was the reason behind the accident.

Police said that only one woman passenger out of 18 on board the coach miraculously survived after the accident.

Read More: Eight die as jeep falls into ravine in Muzafarabad

Earlier, at least eight people, a woman among them, had been killed when the jeep in which they were traveling, plunged into a ravine in Muzafarabad, in Jammu and Kashmir on April 25.

Rescue sources had said the ill-fated jeep plunged into a ravine near the city. As a result, eight people were killed.

After being informed of the accident, rescue teams had reached the spot and recovered the bodies.

Separately, six people, three members of a family, were killed in a deadly collision between a passenger bus and a tractor trolley in Layyah district of Punjab, on Wednesday morning.

Police said that the bus and the tractor-trolley collided near Fatehpur area, leaving six people dead on the spot, while another injured.