10 killed, 15 injured in a bus accident near PoK's Muzaffarabad

At least 10 people were killed and 15 others were injured, when a passenger bus fell down onto the bank of river Jhelum near Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK).

The accident took place near Zaminabad village, some 24 kilometres south of Muzaffarabad, on Muzaffarabad-Kohala road, at around 2:30am (local time), Dawn quoted Muhammad Qadeer, an official posted at the nearest Chattar Klass Police Station as saying.

The bus was carrying 25 people. The bus had left Rawalpindi for Chakothi when the mishap occurred.

"Someone who heard the loud noise caused by the accident called Rescue 15 in Muzaffarabad and they alerted us about the unfortunate incident," said Qadeer, adding that the entire staff of his police station, as well as policemen posted in Kohala, had rushed to the site of the accident to carry out rescue operations.

Qadeer said the part of the road from where the bus fell down had been damaged, allegedly due to erosion by the River Jhelum, and reckoned that it might be the cause of the accident, Dawn reported.

However, another police official said that the driver went out of his control. "It appears that he had dozed off and the vehicle went out of his control," he said.

Earlier, this week, at least 11 people were killed while over 20 sustained injuries in a bus accident at Hasan Abdal's Burhan Interchange in Pakistan's Punjab province.

( With inputs from ANI )