3 schoolchildren killed, 5 others injured as dumper hits them in Abbottabad

Three schoolchildren were killed and five others injured on Friday morning when a dumper truck ran over them in Abbottabad, police said.

According to Abbottabad police spokesperson Azam Mir Afzal, the accident occurred near Lady Garden public park around 8am as the children were crossing the road.

He said that the driver fled after the accident, while the vehicle was seized. A case has been registered against the driver.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Rescue 1122 spokesperson Bilal Ahmad Faizi said that rescue officials rushed to the scene and shifted the bodies and injured to the district headquarters hospital.

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Soon after the tragedy, grieving families and local residents staged a protest and blocked the Old Karakoram Highway, demanding immediate arrest of the driver.

The protest ended after police assured the crowd that the suspect would be apprehended, Afzal said.

This is not the first such accident in the area. In March, two students died and nine others were injured when a school van plunged into a gorge in Tarnoi Qalandarabad.

Last year, four members of a tourist family from Khanewal were killed when a truck struck their vehicle on a bridge in Abbottabad.