Dir avalanche buries four alive

Rescue operation postponed due to heavy snowfall and lack of proper machinery

UPPER DIR:

At least four people have ben killed in an avalanche in Asheri Darra area of the mountainous Upper Dir district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, local residents said on Thursday

Residents of the area told The Express Tribune that four people, including a man and his son, were killed in the avalanche when they were chopping timber from a fallen tree on Wednesday night.

“They were buried in the snow and all of them died due to cold," a resident told The Express Tribune.

"In the morning, locals were informed that four people who went to the mountain last evening were missing, so they started a search for them along with Rescue 1122 and police,” he added.

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He said that it took them five hours to find just one body, while three others were still believed to be buried under snow.

“The rescue operation has been postponed due to heavy snowfall and lack of proper heavy machinery as the spot is located at a considerable distance from the main road,” he said.

“The weather is very bad and we cannot continue our search operation in this cold weather, so we have decided to rest in the night and restart early in the morning,” another resident said.