LOWER DIR: Ten persons, including women and children, were killed and as many were injured when a passenger coach fell into a ravine in Upper Dir district on Monday morning, residents and the police said.

They said that the Kalkot-bound coach coming from Mardan went out of the driver’s control and fell into a gorge in Chalal area in the jurisdiction of Patrak police station, killing 10 persons on the spot and injuring as many.

The deceased were identified as Bakht Zada, Javed, wife of Mir Gul, wife of Haroon Rashid, Farhanullah, son of Haroon Rashid; Ehtesham, son of Haroon; Rasheed, Shehryar, his sister and mother.

The injured included driver Rafiullah, Habib Sultan, daughter of Haroon; Ibrahim, wife of Javed, Arshad, Shahzeb, Bashir, Maaz, and an unidentified person.

Local volunteers and a Rescue 1122 team rushed to the site and retrieved the injured and the bodies from the gorge.

Five ambulances of the rescue service shifted the injured to the District Headquarters Hospital, Timergara.

The bodies were taken to a hospital in Kalkot, where they were handed over to relatives after autopsy. The Patrak police registered a case and started further investigations.

Published in Dawn, March 29th, 2022