No rescue staff at fatal accident site even after 10 hours
UNAUCH (YARKHUN): About 10 hours after a land cruiser fell from a bridge here into the Yarkhun river, no rescue team has reached the accident site even at noon.
Meanwhile, the wreckage of the vehicle is lying in the middle of the river and the locals feared that most of the bodies remain trapped inside, a ChitralToday correspondent present at the site reported.
The body of one of the victms has however been recovered in Pavur village, about 10 km down from here.
Eight of the 10 people travelling to different villages of Upper Yarkhun from Chitral town lost their lives when the vehicle fell off a bridge at about 2am on Sunday.
The bridge is not on the main Chitral-Broghil road but links the village of Unauch with it.
The taxi land cruiser’s destination was not Unauch village but it was going there to drop goods for a shop and used the bridge as a shortcut though it is not safe for loaded vehicles.
When the loaded land cruiser was crossing it the bridge started swinging and the vehicle lost balance, locals quoted the two survivors as saying.
Two persons, one belonging to Lon Mulkhow and the other from Pakpattan Punjab, managed to cling to the luggage carrier on the rooftop of the land cruiser.
They were rescued by local people by throwing a rope to them about two hours after the accident.
There is no rescue service in the whole district of Upper Chitral. Rescue 1122 Lower Chitral was informed about the accident and about an hour ago it was learnt that the emergency service vehicle had left Chitral town to the site.
It would take at least seven more hours to reach here, the correspondent for ChitralToday present at the accident site said.
He said local people were at the site and managing to reach the wreckage of the vehicle in the middle of the river using long ropes but they cannot move the wreckage to retrieve the bodies possibly stuck inside.
The area people said despite repeated fatal accidents mostly due to dilapidated roads, the government has failed to set up an emergency service in the remote district of Upper Chitral.
Picture taken by Abdul Nasir Raza