Eight members of a family died when a Rawalpindi-bound Suzuki car plunged into a deep ravine in the Matta Banda area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Lower Kohistan district on Thursday afternoon, police said.

Station House Officer (SHO) Buland Iqbal told Dawn.com: “A family was returning from Gilgit Baltistan … and experienced the accident in the Matta Banda area. Four children, their father, mother, and two female [relatives] died.”

The SHO said the car fell from a height, killing all passengers on the spot.

The bodies were retrieved by the local people and Rescue 1122 and moved to the Tehsil Headquarters Hospital Pattan, he added.

Rescue 1122 district emergency officer Haroon Rasheed identified the adults as Asif Iqbal, Maimuna Iqbal, Ayesha Siddique and Bushra Iqbal.

He said the deceased were residents of Rawalpindi.

“Arrangements are being made to dispatch the bodies to Rawalpindi,” he told Dawn.com.

Fatal accidents are common on roads in the mountainous regions of the country due to traffic rule violations, treacherous terrain and poor infrastructure.

At least 10 people died and nine others were injured on April 15 when a speeding trailer ran over a Peshawar-bound van on the Indus highway in KP’s Karak district.

Five people were killed when a three-wheeler fell into a canal in the Gohati area of KP’s Swabi on April 7.

Three employees of a Chinese company working on the Dasu hydropower project were killed when a truck plunged into the Indus River in Upper Kohistan district on March 5.