16 killed, 3 injured in road accident in NW Pakistan

At least 16 people were killed and three others injured in a serious road accident which took place early Monday morning on Indus Highway in Karak city in Pakistan's northwest province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said police sources .

Samad Khan, an assistant sub-inspector with the police department in Karak, told Xinhua on telephone that the tragedy happened at about 5:30 am Monday when a coach collided with a trailer coming from the opposite direction on Indus Highway in front of a hotel in Karak city.

The coach was on its way from Rawalpindi, a garrison city of Pakistan's capital Islamabad, to Bannu, a city some 120 kilometers south of Karak, said Khan, adding three children and four women were killed in the accident and all the injured are being rushed to District Headquarters Hospital of the city.

The dead and injured were pulled out of the seriously damaged coach after rescue workers cut open the coach, said eyewitnesses, adding that the trailer's driver had fled the scene.

Source: Xinhua