Quetta: At least 40 people lost their lives and eight others sustained injuries after a passenger coach travelling from Quetta to Peshawar skidded off the Sherani-Zhob highway and tumbled into a deep ravine in the Danasar area near the Balochistan-Khyber Pakhtunkhwa border on Friday.
The Medical Emergency Response Centre (MERC) confirmed that rescue workers retrieved 40 bodies from the crash site, while the injured were shifted to the Trauma Centre in Zhob to receive medical treatment.
Following reports of the tragedy, the Sherani district administration immediately mobilised rescue teams and ambulances to the scene. Emergency personnel from neighbouring Khyber Pakhtunkhwa also joined the operation to assist in rescue and recovery efforts.
Sherani Deputy Commissioner Hazrat Wali Kakar said rescue workers were simultaneously evacuating the injured to nearby hospitals and recovering the bodies of those who had died in the accident.
He disclosed that although the coach had originally left Quetta carrying 36 passengers, additional travellers boarded along the route after another passenger bus suffered a mechanical breakdown, significantly increasing the number of people on board.
In the wake of the disaster, authorities declared a medical emergency at hospitals in Sherani and Dera Ismail Khan to ensure prompt treatment for the injured.
The rescue mission is being jointly conducted by Rescue 1122, the Frontier Corps (FC), police, the district administration and other relevant agencies, with teams continuing search operations at the accident site.
Officials have also launched an investigation to determine what caused the coach to lose control and plunge into the ravine.
In a separate statement, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Rescue 1122 said the passenger bus was carrying 48 people when it crashed into the gorge.
According to the statement, rescue teams from Zhob Emergency Services and Rescue 1122 rushed to the location immediately after receiving the alert. The eight injured survivors were transported to the District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital in Zhob for treatment, while the bodies of those killed were initially shifted to a nearby rural health facility before being transferred to the Zhob DHQ Hospital.
Rescue officials said recovery efforts were still in progress as emergency teams continued to search the wreckage and the surrounding area.
