Two passengers were killed and 16 others, including three foreign nationals, were injured when a Rawalpindi-bound passenger bus veered off the road into a drain on Tuesday, officials said.

According to Serai Saleh Station House Officer (SHO) Raja Mumtaz, the bus veered off the road and fell into a roadside drain near the Shah Maqsood interchange some six kilometres from district headquarters on the Hazara Motorway in Haripur, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

SHO Mumtaz said the cause of the accident was reckless driving. However, the injured passengers claimed the accident occurred when the driver dozed off.

Police quoted the passengers as saying that the Rawalpindi-bound bus left Gilgit in the early hours of Tuesday. When it was near the Shah Maqsood interchange on the Hazara Motorway, the driver lost control and the speeding bus veered into the roadside drain leaving 18 passengers injured.

Locals and rescue workers shifted the injured to Haripur Trauma Centre, where two of the injured were brought dead.

Five passengers sustained serious injuries and were shifted to Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences Islamabad, according to Dr Munawar Khan Afridi, the medical superintendent at the District Headquarters Hospital.

He said 11 others were slightly injured and were discharged after first aid was administered.

The deceased passengers, according to Dr Afridi and police records, were identified as Masroor, 55, a resident of Yaseen Gilgit and Zameer Abbas, 42, a resident of Astore.

Among the injured were a teenage girl and three foreigners identified as John, a Czech Republic citizen and two Chinese citizens, Zu Chongzhi and Lyu Li Dong.