MANSEHRA: Three tourists were killed and two others sustained critical injuries when a tree fell on their car as heavy rain coupled with windstorm lashed various parts of the Mansehra district on Friday evening.

“Three tourists from Nowshero Feroz district of Sindh were killed when a tree fell on their vehicle in Shogran,” district police officer Asif Bahadur told reporters. “The police pulled three bodies and two injured after cutting the tree that fell on the vehicle,” he said.

He identified the victims as Aqib Shah, Mohammad Aid and Amir Hamza. The bodies were shifted to the Civil Hospital, Balakot.

The rain and windstorm started at about 7pm, uprooting trees and disrupting electricity supply in Mansehra, Balakot and tourist resort of Shogran. However, the rain turned the weather pleasant, giving residents respite from hot weather.

Also in the day, two people were killed and two others injured when a car plunged into a ravine on the Karakoram Highway in Pattan area of Lower Kohistan.

The victims were identified as Gohar Rehman and Ahmad Hussain.

The locals shifted the dead and the injured to civil hospital.

Separately, a man was killed after falling from a speeding motorbike in Garhi Habibullah area. The victim, Mohammad Sagheer, was shifted to a nearby hospital in critical condition, where doctors pronounced him dead.

Published in Dawn, June 12th, 2021