ABBOTTABAD, Oct 20: At least 18 people were killed and 39 others injured when a passenger bus fell off the Muslimabad bridge into a ravine near Havelian on Monday evening.

However, some unconfirmed reports put the number of dead at 22.

The bodes of the victims and the injured were taken out of the bus after cutting twisted metal. Most of the victims could not be identified till the filing of this report.

Five of the passengers were killed on the spot while 13 others died on way to hospital. The injured were taken to the Ayub Medical Complex in Abbottabad.

According to hospital staff, 25 of the 36 injured people who were admitted to the Ayub Medical Complex, were in critical condition. Three other injured were shifted to the District Headquarters Hospital.

Bodies of 13 victims, including two women and three children, were placed in the AMC for identification.

Some of the victims identified were: Sajid, Wajid, Adnan, Hafiz Mohammad Shakeel, Ms Gulnaz, Mohammad Irshad, Mohammad Tariq and Makhmal Din.

An emergency was decla-red in the Ayub Medical Complex and doctors and students provided treatment to the injured.

Local people and policemen carried out the rescue work.