MUZAFFARABAD, April 13: As many as eight persons, including three women and a child, were killed and 27 others sustained injuries in a road accident in Sudhnoti district on Friday, police said.

A Hajira-bound passenger bus fell into a deep gorge negotiating a sharp turn at about 9:30am on an under-construction road near Gorah village, DSP Sudhnoti Naseem Mah-mood told Dawn by telephone.

Quoting some passengers, he said the bus went out of driver’s control due to some technical fault and nosedived into the gorge, more than 300-foot beneath the road.

Seven people died on the spot and another succumbed to his injuries on way to a hospital in Islamabad. Of the remaining 27 wounded persons, 16 had been hospitalised in different hospitals of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, he said.

Mr. Mahmood said that the local people and the police had to face problems in reaching the wreckage of the ill-fated vehicle. However, they carried out the rescue operation which came to an end at about 3:00pm.

The deceased were identified as Prof Ashfaq Hussain, Ism Jan, Areesha Bibi, Nazira Begum, Mohammad Ishaq, Asif Aziz, Mehnaz Bibi and her son Mohammad Ilyas.—Tariq Naqash