CHAKWAL: Six people, including four women, lost their lives while 27 others sustained injuries as a bus carrying them crashed on Islamabad-Lahore Motorway (M2) near Chakri Interchange on Sunday noon.

According to officials of the National Highways and Motorway Police (NHMP) and Rescue 1122, the bus belonging to Haji Abdul Sattar Company was on way to Multan from Rawalpindi with 41 passengers aboard.

`The bus hardly crossed the ChakriInterchange when it overturned and fell into a gorge,` an official of NHMP told Dawn. The accident occurred around 12:30pm. Resultantly, five passengers died on the spot while one lost his life at the District Headquarters Hospital Chakwal. As many as 27 other passengers, including women and children, received injuries.

Personnel of Rescue 1122 from Rawalpindi and Chakwal, NHMP and Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) reached the scene and shifted the injured to hospitals in Chakwal, Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

`Seven critically injured patients were shifted to the DHQ hospital Rawalpindi and the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) Islamabad,` an official said.

Talking to Dawn, DHQ Hospital Chakwal Medical Superintendent Dr Mukhtar Sarwar Niazi said 28 injured were brought to the hospital.`One patient received dead while another one expired after reaching the hospital,` he said, adding four injured passengers were referred to Rawalpindi.

`Currently, three male, two female and six children are being treated in the hospital Chakwal,` he said.

The dead were identified as Zaffar Iqbal, 40, Sameena Nasir, 50, Marij Fahim, 18, Naveeda Naheed, 40. Two of the deceased remained unidentified.

The dead and injured belonged to different areas of Multan, Mian Channu, Jhang, Khanewal, Taxila, Azad Kashmir and Wah Cantt.

An official of NHMP said it was raining and the road was slippery, but the driver showed negligence when he should have exhibited extra care. `The accident occurred due to the negligence of the driver who managed to flee the scene,` the official said, vowing to arrest him soon.

A case was registered against thedriver at Chakri police station. Additional Deputy Commissioner Revenue Chakwal Mohammad Shahab Aslam visited the DHQ hospital and inquired about the injured patients.

He directed the management of the hospital to provide utmost treatment to the injured.

According to an initial police report, the NHMP officials were on patrol duty when they received information that a passenger bus (LES-965) had met with an accident at Chakri.

According to a motorway police spokesman, the driver could not control the bus due to slippery road conditions.

One of the women survivors told the emergency service staff that the driver was speeding due to which he could not control the bus and finally it met with an accident.

Mohammad Asghar also contributed to this story from Rawalpindi