Death toll of Pakistan's wedding party vehicle accident rises to 26

Death toll of wedding party vehicle accident that was swept away by flash floods in Pakistan's northwest tribal region of Khyber Agency on Saturday has risen to 26 as 11 more bodies were recovered from ravine, officials and local media said.

A local government official of Landi Kotal area of Khyber Agency, Hikmat Khan Afridi, said that at least 26 bodies and three injured have been retrieved so far from the ravine, while one person is still missing.

"The deceased include 18 children, six women and two men, while all the injured are men," said the official.

The incident took place on Saturday morning when a vehicle carrying 30 wedding guests was washed off a mountainous road and plunged into a gorge in remote Tabai area of the Khyber Agency, Pakistan's northwest tribal region bordering Afghanistan.

The vehicle, carrying the groom's party, was travelling from Bara area to Bazaar Zakha Khel area of the region when it encountered the accident.

The injured people had been shifted to a hospital in Landi Kotal.

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif expressed his immense grief and sorrow over the loss of precious human lives in the accident.

The PM also directed the officials of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and other authorities concerned for effective relief and medical treatment to the survivors.

According to the NDMA, at least 55 people have been killed and 35 others injured due to heavy rains in different parts of the country in July.

Earlier in April, more than 120 people were killed in different incidents of rains and landslides in the country's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and northern Gilgit-Baltistan region, according to the NDMA. Endit