KARACHI, Feb 19: Seven persons, including three women and two children, killed in a road accident on Saturday night were laid to rest on Sunday.A large number of people and family members of the victims attended the funeral prayers held in Korangi 2½. All the victims were later buried in a Korangi graveyard.

Police said that they had detained the bus driver, but an FIR was not yet registered.

“The driver was taken into custody at the spot and the bus was formally impounded,” said Inspector Malik Ayub, the SHO of the Korangi Industrial Area police station.

“The families of the victims are still in shock. We are waiting for their response before initiating any formal investigation.”

The seven people were killed and over half a dozen injured when the fast moving bus carrying a wedding party rammed into a concrete and metal structure installed on the road to restrict entrance of larger vehicles in a Korangi area late on Saturday night.

The area police said the bus heading to a wedding ceremony in Liaquatabad met with the accident when the driver failed to see the structure of more than eight feet height.

The people sitting in the front part of the vehicle sustained serious injuries.

It took rescue workers and area people with the police almost half an hour to pull out the victims from the wreckage.

“In our personal assessment it was not the fault of the driver, and it seems that he was not aware of the presence of the barrier on the road. The barrier was installed to restrict entrance of large vehicles, and only motorcycles and smaller vehicles could pass through it. Similarly, in the darkness of night one can hardly see that structure placed on both ends of the roads. There was no streetlight, neither any reflector was there to warn motorists,” added the Korangi Industrial Area police station SHO.

Later in the night, PML-Q leader Haleem Adil Sheikh visited the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, where the victims of the accident were brought for treatment and medico-legal formalities.

He met the victims’ families and announced Rs100,000 compensation for each of the families of the three killed women and two men. He also promised Rs50,000 each for the families of the deceased children.