At least 26 dead in wedding bus crash in Pakistan’s Gilgit-Baltistan
In this photograph taken and released by Pakistan's Gilgit-Baltistan Emergency Service (Rescue 1122) on November 13, 2024, mourners carry a deceased's body who died in a wedding bus accident in Gilgit. (Photo by Gilgit Baltistan Emergency Service (Rescue 1122) / AFP)
A bus carrying guests home from a wedding plunged into a river in northern Pakistan killing at least 26 people, officials said Wednesday, with the bride so far the only known survivor.
Death toll from Pakistan bus accident climbs to 26
The death toll from a passenger bus accident in northern Pakistan has climbed to 26, a local official said on Wednesday.
“The death toll has increased to 26 while one woman remained unhurt in the accident,” Muhammad Zubair, a local police official of the Diamer district in northwestern Gilgit-Baltistan region, told Anadolu over the phone.
Last evening, a bus carrying a wedding party fell into the Indus River in Pakistan’s northeastern Gilgit-Baltistan region.
The wedding procession from the Astore district of Gilgit Baltistan was going to Punjab’s Chakwal district.
According to police, overspeeding may have caused the driver to lose control of the bus that plunged into the river with 27 people aboard.
The bride is out of danger
“There were 25 people on the bus and so far 14 dead bodies have been recovered while 10 are still missing,” said Wazir Asad Ali, a rescue official in Gilgit-Baltistan.
“The bride is out of danger and she is being treated in a Gilgit hospital,” Ali added.
Naik Alam, a senior police official from the area, told AFP the driver appeared to have been speeding when he lost control at a curve.
They were returning home
The groom’s family had travelled from Punjab, more than 500 kilometres (300 miles) away, for the wedding and were returning home when the accident happened.
Road accidents with high fatalities are common in Pakistan. In Balochistan in August, 12 men died when their bus crashed into a ravine on the Makran Coastal Highway.
In another accident that month, 24 people on board a bus were killed when it plunged into a ravine near the town of Azad Pattan on the border between Punjab province and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
