Four children were killed and three other people injured when a van taking them to a madrasah plunged into a ravine in the upper reaches of Azad Kashmir's Neelum Valley on Saturday morning, officials said.
District Disaster Management Officer Akhtar Ayoub said the van had set off from Nagdar, about 22 kilometres from the district headquarters of Athmuqam, along the Keran bypass link road. The accident happened at around 8:30am near Ghorray Nakkah Morr, barely half a kilometre into the journey, as the driver took a sharp bend, he said.
The van fell more than 500 metres into a rocky ravine. Three children died at the scene and a fourth later died at the District Headquarters Hospital in Athmuqam, Ayoub said. The other injured were moved to Muzaffarabad because of their critical condition.
Azad Kashmir Legislative Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Tariq Farooq offered condolences to the bereaved families and prayed for the injured. Mountain roads demand the utmost caution, he said, warning that even a momentary lapse can have tragic consequences.
It is not the valley's first such tragedy this year. In April, three people were killed and ten injured when a passenger van fell into a ravine in Maidan Nambatai, and on May 11 four people, including two women, died when a jeep plunged into a rocky streambed.