MUZAFFARABAD, Nov 17: Twelve people were killed and nine others wounded when a passenger wagon veered off the road and fell into the River Neelum near here on Wednesday, police said.

The vehicle was coming here from Athmuqam, tehsil headquarters of northeastern Neelum valley, when the accident took place at about 7:15pm, senior superintendent of police Tahir Mahmood Qureshi told Dawn.

"It was not known how the driver lost control over the vehicle which veered off the road and hit the rocky riverbank over 300 feet down," he said, adding the police were investigating the cause of the accident.

The SSP, who supervised the rescue operation along with deputy commissioner Dr Mahmoodul Hassan, told Dawn that 12 bodies had been recovered from the site of the accident and brought to the mortuary of the Combined Military Hospital.

Eight of the dead have been identified as Mahmood Ahmed, resident of Garhi Dopatta; Mohammad Shafiq Shakir and Ghulam Bibi, residents of Neelum valley; Wilayat Shah (a Punjab Regiment solider) and a resident of Sawabi; Raja Tanvir (AJK Rangers Police constable), a resident of Leepa valley; Ansar Mahmood (driver), a resident of Muzaffarabad; Mujassir Butt, a resident of Kamsar refugee camp; and Wazir Iftikhar Ali.