PESHAWAR:At least 13 persons, including nine Chinese nationals, were killed and 23 others injured when a bus carrying them to the under construction Dasu Dam site, met an accident in the remote Barfeen mountainous area of Upper Kohistan district on Wednesday morning.

According to Upper Kohistan Deputy Commissioner Office, Police and Rescue 1122, the dead also included two Frontier Constabulary (FC) personnel, the bus driver and a labourer.

The accident was reportedly caused due to some mechanical failure in the bus, which plunged into a deep ravine in Barfeen mountainous area. It caught fire after a cylinder explosion occurred due to gas leakage.

The personnel of security forces, police, and Rescue 1122 rushed to the spot and shifted the injured to the hospitals of Gilgit and Abbottabad.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan immediately sent a high-level team, including his Special Assistant for Information and Higher Education Kamran Bangash, Chief Secretary Dr Kazim Niaz and Inspector General of Police Moazam Jah to the site to oversee the relief activities.