MANSEHRA: At least 24 people, including women and children, were killed when a jeep carrying members of a wedding party plunged into a stream after a bridge collapsed in the Kandia area of Upper Kohistan on Friday evening.

“All 24 people belonging to the same tribe drowned when a bridge collapsed and the jeep they were travelling in plunged into a stream,” Ahsanul Haq, the chief civil defence warden of Upper Kohistan, told reporters.

The jeep was going to Kandia from Bagru when it met with the accident.

According to the area residents, bodies were swept away by the stream and local people had started efforts to recover the bodies.

Mr Haq said that the incident happened because the bridge, which was in a dilapidated condition, could not bear burden of the heavily loaded jeep.

District police chief of Upper Kohistan Raja Abdul Saboor said: “A police party has been sent to area to take part in rescue activities.

“It is a rugged mountainous area with no communication facilities and the people engaged in rescue activities are facing difficulties because of darkness.”

Published in Dawn, August 31st, 2019