3 labourers drown as bridge collapses in Kohistan

MANSEHRA: Three labourers drowned and two others sustained injuries when a wooden bridge, temporarily erected on a stream, collapsed in the Zaidkhar area of Upper Kohistan on Tuesday.

“We have fished out three bodies and two seriously injured labourers from Zaidkhar stream and shifted them to a nearby health facility,” said Naqibullah, a cop in the Kamila Police Station.

The labourers, according to eyewitnesses, were shifting wood beams from a nearby forest to a road through the temporary bridge when it collapsed. He said five labourers fell into the stream and the gushing water swept them away.

The police, he said, rushed to the spot and fished out the bodies of Akbar Shadoo, a resident of Swat, Span Jehan and Shairzaman, of Kandia valley in Upper Kohistan, and shifted them to the Civil Hospital in Dasu.

Two injured labourers, Ghani Khan and Said Nabi, were also shifted to the same health facility where their condition is stated to be critical.Naqibullah said the wood was legally chopped off from local forests and was being shifted through the temporary bridge.