6 dead, 5 injured after passenger van falls off bridge in Mansehra

Six people — including two women — died and five were injured when a passenger van fell off a bridge while travelling on the route connecting the Thakot area of Battagram to Hazara Motorway in Mansehra — which was constructed as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor — on Saturday, according to a Rescue 1122 official.

Hafeezur Rehman, Rescue 1122’s district emergency officer in Mansehra, told Dawn.com that the van was heading from Battagram’s Allai tehsil to Mansehra.

The accident took place in Mansehra’s Hathimera area when the vehicle’s driver “lost control of the steering wheel”, he said, adding that 13 people were in the van.

The official said a rescue team reached the site after the accident and pulled out dead bodies and the injured from a ditch the bus had fallen in.

The bodies and the injured were taken to King Abdullah Teaching Hospital in Mansehra, he added.

Hafeez said families of the deceased and the injured were informed of the accident and that the bodies will be handed over to the heirs after the completion of medico-legal formalities.

Earlier this month, 21 members of a family from Peshawar were injured when a wagon they were travelling in overturned on the Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad Road in the Sangar area of Balakot.

According to officials, the tourist family was on its way to Kaghan Valley from Peshawar when the driver lost control over the steering while negotiating a sharp turn, which resulted in an accident.