KHAAR (Bajaur Agency), Feb 21: At least four children died of measles and more than a dozen were affected as epidemic broke out in three villages in far-flung parts of the tribal agency during the last 24 hours , officials confirmed on Saturday.

Three of the children died in Arang and Barang villages and one in the Omerai village, some 50 kilometres from the agency. They were identified as Khurshid, 7, Zeenat Bibi, 12, Akbar Khan, 10, and Umer Gul, 11.

The health department had dispatched special teams of doctors to the mountainous areas to provide medical treatment to the people in the affected villages and contain the epidemic, the officials said.

They said that emergency arrangements were also being made to shift the affected children to the Agency Headquarters Hospital in Khaar.