4 dead as vehicle falls into gorge in J&K’s Rajouri

Rajouri/Jammu, Jul 5 (PTI) Four people died and eight sustained critical injuries when their vehicle skidded off a road and rolled down a deep gorge in Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri district in the early hours of Wednesday, officials said.

The accident took place in the Thanamandi subdivision when the car was on its way to Bhangai village from Poonch, where the victims had gone to attend a funeral, they said.

The officials said the driver of the vehicle lost control over it on the Thanamandi Bhangai road hardly a few hundred metres from its destination.

“Twelve passengers in total were travelling in the vehicle at the time of the accident. All were rescued by locals and police and taken to the sub-district hospital in Thanamandi where four of them were declared brought dead,” a police official said.

The deceased were identified as Shamim Akhtar (55), Rubina Kouser (35), Zarina Begum and Mohammad Younis (38), all residents of Bhangai.

Sub-Divisional Police Officer Thanamandi Imtiaz Ahmed said the injured have been referred to the GMC Associated Hospital in Rajouri.

He said a case under relevant sections of the law has been registered.