MUZAFFARABAD: One person was killed and five others were injured after a jeep plunged into the Neelum river in the upper belt of Neelum valley on Sunday night, police said.

Initial reports said the vehicle had 13 occupants, and seven of them had been missing.

The jeep was coming from Taobutt, the last village of Neelum valley, to the town of Kel, located some 156 kilometres northeast of Muzaffarabad, when it met the tragedy at a curve ahead of Phulawai bazaar, some 21km away from its destination.

“According to initial reports, there were 13 people on board the Toyota hardtop jeep, and except the driver and his helper, the rest were tourists from Lahore,” said Khawaja Abdul Hameed, a police official in Kel.

He said rescuers had found one body and five injured survivors, including the helper, at the riverbank and they had been shifted to a hospital in Kel.

Akhtar Ayub, the district disaster management officer in Neelum, said the condition of the helper and one of the tourists was critical.

He said a team of two divers with life jackets and other equipment had been sent to the accident site.

“If the rescuers are able to reach the partially visible [wreckage of] jeep in the swollen as well as the fast-flowing river, they will try to salvage survivors and bodies from it. Otherwise, we are afraid that the strong currents of the river will sweep them away by morning,” he said.

Earlier in January, five people were killed and three injured when a passenger coach fell into a ditch near Rahim Kot in Muzaffarabad.

Published in Dawn, May 1st, 2023