Chairlift drops into river in northern Pakistan, killing 2

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN (BNO NEWS) -- A chairlift carrying five people dropped into a fast-flowing river in northern Pakistan on Saturday morning, killing two of the occupants and injuring three others, police said. It comes nearly a year after a similar accident killed eight people.

The accident happened at around 9:30 a.m. local time on Saturday when a chairlift was carrying a group of five people across the Panjkora River near the village of Warai, located in Upper Dir District of northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. It occurred when a cable suddenly snapped, causing the lift to drop into the river.

"Three of the five people were rescued from the water but rescue attempts were difficult because the river is flowing fast after the heavy rains yesterday," a district police official said by telephone. "The survivors were rushed to the hospital in Warai and I am told their lives are not in danger."

The official said rescue workers later recovered one body while a second person remains missing and is presumed to have drowned, putting the death toll at two. The identities of the victims was not immediately known, but at least one of those killed was believed to be a local villager from Warai.

Police were investigating the cause of Friday's accident, which officials say may have been caused by the lift's weight.

Because many rivers and gorges in the region have no bridges, some towns are only accessible by chairlift, making them an important mode of transportation for locals. But deadly accidents have occurred regularly, including a July 2012 accident that claimed eight lives when a chairlift dropped into a river in Pakistan's Gilgit-Baltistan region.

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