CHAKWAL: Seven people were killed and 36 others injured when a passenger bus fell down from a bridge near Kot Qazi village in Talagang on Thursday.

The bus was going to Karachi from Mansehra.

The accident occurred when the bus was passing by Kot Qazi village on TalagangMianwali Road. As a result, seven passengers, including two women, died on the spot while 36 others sustained injuries.

The injured were taken to the Tehsil Headquarters Hospital and City Hospital Talagang.

`Twenty-three injured passengers were brought to City Hospital where seven of them were referred to Rawalpindi. As many as 13 injured were brought to the THQ hospital and seven of them were referred to Rawalpindi due to their serious condition,` an of ficial of the health department told Dawn. He said the hospital also received seven bodies.

The deceased included Qaisar Shehzad, Gul-i-Nargis, residents of Mansehra; Mehnaz, a resident of Rawalpindi, Mohammad Shafique, Mohammad Ashraf, of Muzaffarabad, Mohammad Javed, a resident of Talagang and Mohammad Bilal of Abbottabad.

DPO Munir Masood Marath told Dawn that the accident occurred due to rash driving. `The driver also got seriously injured and was referred to Rawalpindi,` he said.

Khurram Manzoor, the media coordinator for Rescue 1122, while quoting an injured said an elderly passenger sitting in the front seat instigated the driver to speed up.

`When the driver accelerated the speed, the elderly passenger appreciated him.

In the meantime, however, he driver lost the control when he saw a van coming from the opposite direction.