MUZAFFARABAD, Feb 24: Fourteen people, 10 of them women, were killed and five others were critically injured in southern Poonch district of Azad Kashmir on Saturday after a public transport vehicle was buried under a landslide, police and eyewitnesses said.

The accident occurred near Sanadi Nullah at about 3pm. The vehicle was carrying 17 passengers and was on its way to Bangoin village from Rawalakot, a police official told Dawn from Rawalakot.

Local people, police and army personnel took part in the rescue operation and recovered five people and two dead bodies from under the piece of the mountain which fell downwounded persons and two dead bodies within an hour, he said.

The injured, including the vehicle’s driver and one of his associates, were admitted to the Combined Military Hospital in Rawalakot.

Earth-moving machinery and explosives were used to recover the wreckage the corpses of two men, 10 women, and two children -- a boy and a girl aged between 5 and 7 years, Sardar Nazar Mohammad, a local journalist who was present on the accident site said.

Steep mountains in the AJK have become unstable and prone to landslides after the massive 2005 earthquake. Since then, engineers have been repairing the roads.

At least 15 people were killed in a similar incident in Kotli district earlier this year after a landslide hit their vehicle.