No fewer than 15 wedding guests including a child have been killed and 60 others injured after a speeding bus veered off the road and plunged into a gully in Punjab province in Pakistan.
According to VOA, the bus, which was travelling from Islamabad to Lahore, overturned late on Sunday in the Kallar Kahar Salt Range region, some 240 km from Lahore.
The country’s emergency Rescue 1122 official Muhammad Farooq said, “The bus, before overturning, hit three vehicles coming from the opposite direction and veered off the road.”
The bus was carrying people returning from a wedding ceremony, and the rescue 1122 emergency service said the accident was caused by a brake failure.
The dead and many injured had to be removed by cutting the bus’ body, Farooq said.
“The injured were shifted to hospitals in twin cities — Rawalpindi and Islamabad — where the condition of 11 of them is critical,” he said, adding that among the dead, six were women.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif expressed sadness over the accident, directing the authorities to offer the best medical facilities to the wounded.
Road accidents are common in Pakistan and are caused mainly due to poor roads, badly maintained vehicles and unprofessional driving.
Last month, at least 41 people were killed after a passenger coach fell into a ravine in Balochistan’s Lasbela.