At least two students lost their lives and nine others were injured when a private school van plunged into a ravine in Abbottabad’s Tarnoi Qalandarabad area on Saturday, according to local officials.
Abbottabad Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Traffic, Tariq Mehmood Khan, confirmed the incident to Dawn.com, stating that the school van veered off the road and fell into the gorge. Rescue 1122 teams quickly arrived at the scene and transported the victims to Ayub Teaching Hospital (ATH).
Khan reported that two female students, aged between 14 and 15, were pronounced dead at the scene, while the remaining nine injured passengers, including students and two women, were taken to ATH for medical treatment.
ATH spokesperson Malik Saif Rajpoot told that the injured consisted of seven students and two women. The van was reportedly providing pick-and-drop services for students and teachers from various private schools and colleges in the area. He confirmed that the nine injured are currently receiving treatment at the hospital.
This tragic incident comes on the heels of a similar one last September in which a man and his eight-month-old daughter died in Shangla’s Bisham tehsil. That accident occurred when a pickup van collided with a rickshaw, leaving 11 people injured and causing the rickshaw to catch fire.
