19 killed, many injured as bus falls into ravine in northern Pakistan
- 09 Mar 2020
A passenger bus tumbled off a winding mountainous road and into a ravine in northern Pakistan on Monday, killing at least 19 people and injuring several others, a government spokesman said.
The cause of the accident was unclear, and rescue workers were still working at the scene recovering the injured and the dead and taking them to a nearby hospital, said Faiz Ullah Faraq, spokesman for the Gilgit-Baltistan region.
Faraq said the bus had been headed to the town of Skardu in the Gilgit-Baltistan region from the garrison city of Rawalpindi. He gave no further details.
Late on Sunday five people died and 17 were injured when a bus fell into a ravine near the town of Arja, northeast of Islamabad, said local official Abdul Hameed Kiyani.
Skardu serves as the gateway to K-2, the world’s highest peak after Mt. Everest, which is also part of the Himalayas. Large numbers of local and foreign tourists visit the peak annually. Skardu is around 240 kilometres north of the Pakistani capital of Islamabad.
Associated Press / AFP
