15 feared dead as jeep plunges into Pak river

The driver had allowed too many people onto the vehicle and lost control while negotiating a sharp bend near Balakot.

Fifteen people were feared drowned on Wednesday after an overcrowded jeep plunged into a river in the area of Pakistan devastated by last year's earthquake, police said.

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The driver had allowed too many people onto the vehicle and lost control while negotiating a sharp bend near the destroyed northwestern city of Balakot, local police official Mohammed Farid said.

"The jeep fell into the Kunar River and some 15 people including the driver are feared drowned," Farid said.

"Police teams have rushed to the scene for rescue work but we have not yet received the exact casualty figures as the roads are bad and the communications system is poor in the area."

Many roads were damaged by the 7.6-magnitude earthquake that killed more than 73,000 people on October 8 last year. Another 15 people died in a minibus accident in the same area in February.

Balakot itself was razed to the ground by the tremor and the government has ordered the city's inhabitants to be moved to a completely new site that is seismically safer.