MUZAFFARABAD: Four persons, including a woman, were killed and another nine were injured when the passenger coach they were on board plunged into a gorge near Muzaffarabad on Wednesday evening, police said.

The ill-fated vehicle, with 13 persons on board, was heading towards Sadban village through a steep link road stemming from the main Neelum valley road near Karika, some 16 kilometres northeast of Muzaffarabad, when it met the accident after sunset, said police official Pervez Awan.

“When the vehicle reached near Bakriyali village, it skidded in the backward direction and as the driver failed to change gear, it went out of his control and fell more than 300 feet down the road,” he told Dawn from the accident site where he said he had reached immediately after the accident to oversee rescue operation.

Three persons died on the spot and the rest sustained injuries and, of them, one succumbed to his wounds on the way to the hospital, he said. He identified the deceased as driver Muhammad Naseer, 48, and passengers Muhammad Iqbal, 30, Munawwar Jan, 65, and Arshad Hameed, 27.

Published in Dawn, November 16th, 2023