Death toll rises to 6 in Neelum River mishap

The group of eight people from Narowal was going to the upper belt of the picturesque valley. However, shortly ahead of Jura Bandi village, some 65 kilometres northeast of Muzaffarabad, they met with an accident, police said.

The area where the vehicle plunged into the river was not in a bad enough condition to have caused such an accident. He quoted an eyewitness as saying that one of the tyres burst which led to the driver losing control of the vehicle, causing it to fall into the river.

According to an official, two children were ejected from the car as soon it veered off course.

Locals immediately rushed the injured children to a nearby military run health facility in critical condition. However, the others couldn’t survive because of their injuries and the icy water, he added.

Rescuers pulled the vehicle from the river and discovered four bodies. They were identified as Nadir Kamran, his brother Azam Rizwan, wife Madiha Noor and mother Parveen Akhtar.

Rizwan’s wife Ayesha and Kamran’s three-and-a-half-year-old daughter Anaya were still missing and, according to local officials, they were presumed dead.