MUZAFFARABAD: At least 22 people are missing and feared dead after a flood ransacked into a village in Muzaffarabad’s Neelum Valley late Sunday night, ARY News reported on Monday.
According to details, a local village adjacent to Lesua Nala saw massive flooding in the waterway resulting in the destruction of over 150 houses and ample people missing and or dead, according to initial reports.
Temporary camps are being set up to house the displaced people and food and non-food items are being gathered.
No bodies have been found thus far but officials say the chances of anyone being found alive are slim to none.
Telephone lines are down and roads leading to the village are blocked. Rescue officials are trying to get past the roadblocks to the village but the terrain is a difficult one and no worthwhile help has reached the effected area.
Commissioner Islamabad on the occasion said that prior forecasts for torrential rains had been issued and the flooding event was unforeseen and unfortunate.
Read More: PM Imran Khan in Nathia Gali with family on two-day retreat: sources
Earlier, Pakistan Army has rescued all the tourists, who were stuck in the air after a chair lift wire detached from the pulley due to typhoon in Muree, on June 30.
A popular visiting spot in Muree, the elevated chairlifts met with a malfunction resulting in hundreds of getting stuck in the air precariously.
The rescue operation to retrieve and rescue all chair lift riders was completed by the army contingent along with the civil administration, and all the tourists were safely evacuated.
“Army engineers repaired the cable tower to rescue the tourists”, the army’s military wing said.
The Patriata chair lifts in Muree are a main tourist attraction, It is the highest point in the area and the hills stand 7,500 feet above sea level.
In 2017, at least 10 people were killed and two injured when a chairlift cable broke and it plunged into a ravine.
The accident occurred some 30 kilometres (18 miles) north of Islamabad in the Charra Pani village in Murree.
Rescue teams had shifted injured persons and the bodies to the hospital.
