Eight students feared dead in avalanche in Pakistan

Eight schoolchildren were among nine people feared dead in an avalanche in Pakistan's mountainous northwest which has been battered by heavy rains in recent days, officials said today.

Bodies of two nine-graders were recovered today by Pakistan army officials and scouts while a search was underway for the seven still trapped by the avalanche in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Chitral near the Afghan border, they said.

The disaster struck Susoom village of Karimabad yesterday. A Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) statement said the chances of finding alive those missing remains dim and that they were presumed dead.

District Police Officer Chitral said nine people were buried by the avalanche, of which one was a passerby and eight were class nine students returning home after exams.

The district administation, army and volunteers were working in the area but the weather has not been friendly.

Heavy downpour has hindered the search-and-rescue operation. Due to difficult terrain and topography, heavy machinery have not been deployed in the area, a PDMA spokesman said.

Heavy rains have killed more than 60 people, injured several others and damaged many houses since March 9 across Pakistan, according to National Disaster Management Authority.

Yesterday, at least eleven people were killed in two separate incidents of roof collapse triggered by torrential rains in Peshawar.