CHITRAL: Seven people were killed and seven others suffered injuries when an avalanche hit the auto workshop of a construction company at the Chitral portal of Lowari Tunnel on Sunday.

Sub-Divisional Police Offi­cer of Drosh, Zafar Ahmed, told Dawn that as per the record of the Sambu Cons­truction Company of South Korea, 14 of its employees were in the workshop when it was buried by the avalanche and landslides.

He said that personnel of police and Chitral Scouts deployed at the tunnel launched a rescue operation and were soon joined by additional personnel of police and the army.

Seven people with injuries were rescued from the debris. However, the other seven were found dead.

Four of the deceased belonged to different areas of Punjab and three to Chitral. They were identified as Rahmat Zada and Rehmat Ghazi, residents of Drosh; Jalaluddin (Damil), Nadeem Akhtar and Mohammad Kamran (Jhelum); Mohammad Asif (Pakpattan) and Haji Iftikhar (Chakwal).

The injured were: Altaf Hussain, Zamarud Hussain, Qaiser Nawaz, Shakil Ahmed, Bahadur Wali, Gul Alam and Mujeebur Rahman.

The official said that the injured were taken to hospital and the bodies were sent to the towns and villages of the deceased.

In the workshop, he said, vehicles and machines of the construction company were repaired.

This was the second incident of a natural disaster in the vicinity of Lowari Tunnel. The first incident had taken place in August 2005 when flash flood in a stream had swept away two Korean engineers and many locals.

AFP adds: Lowari Tunnel connects the districts of Dir and Chitral in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Rescue teams have rushed to the area to help travellers stranded by the avalanche.

At least 13 people were killed and 20 houses destroyed by avalanches and heavy rain which struck the region earlier this month -- while the death toll in neighbouring Afghanistan rose to almost 200.

The deceased were mechanics and technicians employed by the construction company, according to APP.

Published in Dawn, February 20th , 2017