ISLAMABAD, Aug 6: Six passengers were killed and 25 injured when a bus plunged into a ditch near Tarnol toll plaza on the Motorway in the small hours of Tuesday morning.

Police said a passenger bus No NWFP-1118 was coming from Lahore and when it got on the motorway near Tarnol toll plaza, it plunged into a ditch, because the driver had fallen asleep, police said.

Six passengers were killed including a woman who was yet to be identified and 25 injured. The dead and the injured were trapped in the bus wreckage, and were later pulled out by the rescuers after breaking the body parts of the vehicle.

The rescuers also found a totally smashed body, beyond recognition.

The victims were shifted to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims).

“It was a horrible accident and the death toll could rise as some of the injured are in critical condition,” a doctor at the hospital said.

Outside the Pims hospital, relatives and friends of the accident victims were going over the lists of the causalities.

Police investigating into the accident said the bus driver had fallen asleep causing the fatal accident.

The dead included: Nomair Khan, Sher Mohammad, Shamas Mehmood, an unidentified woman and a two men.

The injured included, Iftikhar Ali, Mohammad Aslam, Haji Aminullah, Rasool Shah, Sohabat Khan, Ijaz, Iftikhar Khan, Wali Khan, Rasheed Khan Khadam Hussain, Mohammad Shafiq, Qayoom, Soleman, Lubna Bibi, Ubkar Bibi, Aslam Shah, Gohar Ali, Saleem Aktar, Mushtaq, Shabir and Yousuf.

The slightly wounded passengers were allowed to go after given first aid, the hospital authorities said.