Five people were killed and three injured in the early hours of Friday when a passenger coach fell into a ditch near Rahim Kot in Azad Jammu and Kashmir’s (AJK) capital, Muzaffarabad, according to local police.

According to Superintendent of Police Sultan Awan, the passengers were going from Rawalpindi to their hometown of Mushtamba in Rahim Kot when the accident occurred at around 4:30am.

He added that the driver and the conductor of the coach were among the fatalities. One of the injured passengers was in critical condition.

The cause of the accident is not clear yet; however, a local resident, Raja Amjad told Dawn.com that “the vehicle was in a good condition [so] it seems the driver dozed off”.

Prime Minister AJK Sardar Tanveer Ilyas Khan expressed “deep grief” on the “loss of valuable lives in the accident” and solidarity with their families.

He wished the injured passengers a speedy recovery and prayed for the deceased.

The region’s lacking road infrastructure also led to a jeep falling into a nullah in AJK’s Neelum Valley more than a month ago, killing six women and injuring others.

The same month, a van plunged into a ravine in the Sudhnoti district of AJK, leaving three students dead and the driver wounded.