11 children injured as school van catches fire in Murree

Four children in critical condition were referred to hospitals in Rawalpindi for further treatment

RAWALPINDI:

Eleven children were injured when a private school van fell off Sign Road in Masiari, Murree, and caught fire on Tuesday, with four critically injured children being referred to hospitals in Rawalpindi, police said.

Four of the injured children were in critical condition and were referred to hospitals in Rawalpindi for further treatment. Locals helped rescue the children from the van shortly after the accident, while rescue teams and firefighters reached the scene and brought the fire under control.

Eight children with minor injuries were admitted to the District Headquarters Hospital (DHQ) in Murree, while the van was destroyed by the fire.

Murree District Police Officer (DPO) Raza Tanveer Supra said the accident occurred after the van’s brakes failed and fell off the road. It caught fire shortly afterwards and was completely gutted.

Read: Murree bus crash claims five lives

Children from two private schools were travelling in the van, according to the DPO.  He said 12 children had been travelling in the van, which had picked them up from different areas.

Arham, son of Ali Nawaz, aged eight, sustained burns to around 38 per cent of his body, while eight-year-old Hassan Talib, son of Muhammad Talib, sustained burns to around 26 per cent of his body. Ayesha, daughter of Kaleem, sustained burns to around 42 per cent of her body.

DPO Supra said four children had suffered burns covering more than 25 per cent of their bodies and were being referred to hospitals in Rawalpindi for treatment. Two children escaped burns, while six sustained burns covering less than 10 per cent of their bodies.

The DPO visited the injured children at the hospital and reviewed the medical facilities being provided to them. Police said the cause of the accident was being determined and legal proceedings were under way.

Supra said a similar incident involving a van fire had occurred in Murree previously. He added that vehicle fitness checks would also be carried out on vehicles operating in rural areas to help prevent such incidents.

The latest accident came after several fatal road crashes in the Murree area in recent months. On June 11, at least 10 people were killed and 13 injured when a passenger van carrying members of the same family plunged into a stormwater drain and caught fire on the Rawalpindi-Murree Expressway near Khajut.

On August 26, five people were killed and 13 injured when a passenger bus plunged into a ravine near Lower Barian at the Murree-Galiyat junction. Witnesses and injured passengers attributed the crash to alleged driver negligence, while relatives called for an impartial investigation.