6 dead in bridge collapse in Kashmir, Pakistan

By Islamuddin Sajid

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan

At least six people died, with a dozen still missing, when a footbridge collapsed over a river in Pakistan’s Azad Kashmir territory on Sunday, officials said.

A group of some 29 tourists, most of them students from Faisalabad and Multan in the northeastern Punjab province, were standing on the Kundal Shahi footbridge in the Neelum Valley taking selfies when it suddenly collapsed and all of them were swept away, Atiq Ahmad, a local administrative official, told Anadolu Agency on the phone.

He added that the bridge was in poor condition and there was a sign warning tourists not to use it.

“Six dead bodies have been recovered, 11 injured were rescued, and shifted to army hospital Muzaffarabad,” the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said in a statement

Around 12 persons are still missing, but rescue operations are underway, the statement added.

The Neelum Valley -- located near the Lion of Control (LoC), a de facto border that divides the disputed Kashmir Valley between Pakistan and India -- is a popular summer tourist attraction in Pakistan.