Rawalpindi:

At least 22 people were killed when the bus they were travelling in plunged into a ravine in Pakistan on Sunday, rescue officials said. The accident occurred near the town of Azad Pattan.

“22 dead till now, including 15 men, six women and one child,” said Farooq Ahmed, a spokesperson for Rescue 1122 emergency services in Punjab.

Muhammad Usman Gujjar, another spokesperson for the rescue service, told AFP that “initial information suggests that a vehicle fell into a ravine”. 

Road accidents with high fatalities are common in Pakistan, where safety measures are lax, driver training is poor and transport infrastructure often decrepit.

On Saturday, the bodies of 28 pilgrims who died in a bus crash in Iran were returned to Pakistan. 

The bus was carrying 51 Pakistani pilgrims to Iraq for the Arbaeen commemoration, one of the biggest events of the Shiite calendar, when it overturned and caught fire in front of a checkpoint in Yazd province on Tuesday night, Iranian state TV reported.

The head of Iran’s traffic police, Teymour Hosseini, cited a brake failure and the steep road as the reasons for the crash.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

The Google Maps route showing the area around the Karakoram Highway in Gilgit-Baltistan region.

At least 20 people were killed when a passenger bus skidded off a mountainous terrain and plunged into a ravine in northwest Pakistan on Friday, authorities said.

The incident occurred on the Karakoram Highway in Diamer district of Gilgit-Baltistan region when the bus was on its way from Rawalpindi to Hunza and the driver lost control of the vehicle, a police official said.

It was not clear as to how many passengers were aboard the bus, the official said.

At least 15 people, who were injured in the incident, have been moved to a hospital in Chilas, the official said.

Rescue efforts are in progress and the dead bodies are being shifted to the hospital, the official said.

A hospital source said three women were among the dead.

The source said the death toll was expected to rise further as many of the injured were in critical condition.

Gilgit Baltistan Chief Minister Haji Gulbar Khan expressed condolences over the incident and directed the administration to provide immediate medical aid to the injured.

Giltgit-Baltistan government spokesperson Faizullah Faraq said an emergency was declared at the Chilas Hospital after the accident.