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Nine, including 8 students feared dead in Pakistan avalanche
Eight school children were among nine people feared dead in an avalanche triggered by heavy rains in Pakistan, officials said.
Eight school children were among nine people feared dead in an avalanche in Pakistan’s mountainous northwest, which has been battered by heavy rains, officials said on Sunday.
Bodies of two ninth class students were recovered on Sunday by Pakistan Army officials and scouts while a search was underway for the seven still trapped by the avalanche in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Chitral near the Afghan border, they said.
The disaster struck Susoom village of Karimabad on Saturday.
A Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) statement said the chances of finding survivors is unlikely and that have been presumed dead.
District police officer Chitral said nine people were buried by the avalanche, of which one was a passerby and eight were class nine students returning home after exams.
The district administration, army and volunteers were working in the area but heavy downpour hindered the search and rescue operation.
Due to difficult terrain and topography, heavy machinery has not been deployed in the area, a PDMA spokesperson said.
Heavy rains have killed more than 60 people, injured several others and damaged many houses since March 9 across Pakistan, according to the National Disaster Management Authority.
At least eleven people were killed in two separate incidents of roof collapse triggered by torrential rains in Peshawar on Saturday.
