CHITRAL: Flash floods triggered by torrential rain washed away eight heavy vehicles of a construction firm in Ziarat area, on the Chitral portion of the Lowari tunnel in the early hours of Monday, but no loss of human life was reported.

Chitral police told Dawn that all the vehicles belonged to a Korean firm engaged in the construction of Lowari tunnel. They said the drivers had abandoned the vehicles after being alerted about the approaching flash floods.

The flash flood also washed away a waiting room, and damaged a one-kilometer stretch of the Peshawar road. As a result, the road was closed to all kinds of vehicular traffic, while an official said the reopening of the road might take three to five days as it was littered with boulders. Thousands of passengers going to Peshawar from Chitral after Eidul Fitr had to return to Chitral due to closure of the road at Ziarat.-Correspondent