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At least 14 people were killed, including a newlywed couple, and 12 went missing after a bus carrying a wedding party plunged into the Indus river in northern Pakistan’s mountainous Gilgit-Baltistan region.
One passenger survived with injuries. The missing were all presumed dead given the rapid current and freezing temperature of the river, local media reported.
The bus carrying 27 passengers was on its way to Chakwal, a city in the Punjab province, and met with the accident at around 1pm local time on Tuesday, government spokesman Faizullah Faraq said.
The bus fell into the river from the Telchi bridge in the Diamer district after the driver lost control reportedly due to speeding.
Rescue workers recovered 13 bodies from the river.
The bride was rescued with serious injuries but succumbed in hospital later. The groom from Chakwal was among those presumed dead.
Pakistan’s president, Asif Ali Zardari, offered his condolences and urged the rescue workers to find the missing passengers.
The wreckage of the bus was fished out of the river with the help of boats and divers.
The search for the missing would be expanded along the banks of the river on Wednesday, the Dawn newspaper reported.
In August, two bus accidents in northeast and southwest Pakistan killed at least 34 people on the same day.
The first tragedy occurred in the Lasbela district of Balochistan province where a bus carrying Shia Muslim pilgrims returning from Iraq plunged into a ravine.
A few hours later, a bus travelling from Kahuta in Punjab province to Rawalpindi veered off the Azad Pattan Road and plunged into a ravine. The cause of the crash, as with the first accident, was attributed to brake failure.
