KASUR: Fourteen passengers, five women and one child among them, were killed and nine others injured when a van plunged into a canal on Changa Manga-Pattoki Road on Saturday.

The van was on its way from Raiwind to Pattoki when a rear tyre burst, plunging the vehicle into the BS-Link Canal, near Ahdan village, as the driver lost control.

Severe jolts to the van were the cause of deaths and injuries because there was only knee-deep water in the canal.

Locals and rescue teams rushed to the spot.

The vehicle`s body had to be cut to take out the dead and the injured.

The injured were taken to Pattoki THQ Hospital in critical condition. Later they were referred to the Jinnah Hospital, Lahore.

Shahzad, Abdul Mannan (van driver) and Mohammad Akbar of Changa Manga, Mohammad Hanif of Kot Radha Kishan, Salamat Ali of Chak 15, Mohammad Arif of Dhoba village, 12-year-old Niamat and Barkat Bibi, Hanifa Bibi, Muqadas Bibi, Shazia Bibi and Maryam Bibi of Pattoki are among the deceased.

Police handed over the bodies of the victims to their families after autopsy.

The injured include Mohammad Tariq, Bilal Ahmad and Imran Latif of Halla village, Ghulam Aliof Dhana village, Imran Mushtaq of Kot Fazal Din village, Manzoor Masih, Khadim Husain, Sarwar and Shakeel Ahmad of Pattoki.

Kasur District Police Officer Ali Nasir Rizvi and District Coordination Officer Mohammad Shahid also reached the spot.

Changa Manga police registered a case against the dead van driver on a complaint of Mohammad Khalid, a relative of a deceasedpassenger.

The complainant claimed in the FIR that when the van was on the bridge of the canal, a minitruck approached from the opposite direction. The van driver tried to give way to the mini-truck and hit the fence of the bridge and the van fell into the canal.