Cold kills 22 stuck in cars in heavy snow at Pakistan resort
Soldiers clear road covered with snow in Murree, after an incident where at least 21 people died in an enormous traffic jam caused by tens of thousands of visitors thronging to a Pakistani hill town to see unusually heavy snowfall, in this Jan. 8 photograph released by Pakistan's Inter Services Public Relations. AFP-Yonhap
At least 22 people, including 10 children, died in a popular mountain resort town in Pakistan after being stuck in their vehicles overnight during a heavy snowstorm as temperatures plummeted, officials said Saturday.
Most of the victims died of hypothermia, officials said. Among them was an Islamabad police officer and seven other members of his family, fellow police officer Atiq Ahmed said.
More than a meter of snow fell in the area of the Murree Hills resort overnight Friday and early Saturday, trapping thousands of cars on roadways, said Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed. The snow was so severe that heavy equipment brought in to clear it initially got stuck during the night, said Umar Maqbool, assistant commissioner for the town of Murree. Temperatures fell to minus 8 degrees Celsius.
A vehicle is stuck in snow along a road near the town of Muree after heavy overnight snowfall, Jan. 8. Earlier least 21 people died in an enormous traffic jam caused by tens of thousands of visitors thronging to the Pakistani hill town to see the unusually heavy snowfall. AFP-Yonhap
Officials called in paramilitary troops and a special military mountain unit to help. By late Saturday, thousands of vehicles had been pulled from the snow but more than a thousand were still stuck, Ahmed said.
Most roads leading to the area's resorts were largely cleared of snow by late Saturday, and troops were working to clear the rest, Maqbool said. The military also converted army-run schools into relief camps where they provided shelter and food for tourists who had been rescued.
Emergency officials distributed food and blankets to people while they were trapped in their snowed-in vehicles, but many died of hypothermia. Others may have died from carbon monoxide poisoning after running their car heaters for long periods of time, said rescue services physician Abdur Rehman. As of late Saturday, the death toll included 10 men, 10 children and two women, Rehman said.
In one instance, a husband and wife and their two children all died in their car. In another, four young friends died together, he said.
Located 28 miles (46 kilometers) north of the capital of Islamabad, Murree is a popular winter resort town that attracts well over a million tourists annually. Streets leading into the town are often blocked by snow in winter. (AP)