Five people, including three women, were killed and 9 injured when a minibus came under a huge boulder after a landslide hit a stretch of road in Jammu and Kashmir’s Doda district on Wednesday.

The mini-bus was on its way to Gandoh from Thathri, when a big rock hit it at Piyakul belt late afternoon on Wednesday.

Sub-divisional police officer Gandoh Bhallesa Nawaz Khanday said five persons were killed and nine others injured in the incident. The deceased have been identified as Shakeela Bagum, Mansoor Ahmad, his wife Gulshan Bagum, Mudaser Husain and Kamlesha Devi- all of them from Doda district.

Thathri sub-divisional magistrate Mohd Anwar Banday said preliminary reports suggest that the minibus, which was crossing the muddy patch, apparently came under debris and rocks due to the landslide. Doda deputy commissioner Doifode Sagar Dattatray and SSP Shabir Malik immediately reached the spot.

Locals and police swung into action and after rescuing the passengers, shifted the injured to a local hospital in Thathri.

Initially, three persons died on the spot and 11 others were injured, some of them critically. Later on, two more succumbed in the hospital, officials said.

Two months back, two people were killed after the vehicle they were travelling in was hit by a landslide.

First Published: Apr 25, 2019 10:39 IST