At least 26 missing or dead after vehicle carrying children from school falls into Jhelum river in Muzaffarabad, Kashmir

This article is more than 10 years old

This article is more than 10 years old

A van carrying at least 30 schoolchildren plunged into a river in Pakistani-held Kashmir today, with most passengers confirmed or feared dead.

The driver lost control of the vehicle and it plunged 15 metres (50ft) into the Jhelum river from an elevated road in the regional capital, Muzaffarabad, said local police chief Ghulam Akber. He added that the authorities had managed to save the driver and four children.

However, teacher Bashir Mughal said rescue workers took more than an hour to arrive and local villagers pulled the four children from the water.

Fifteen bodies have been recovered but the other children are still missing, Akber said. Some bodies may already have been collected by locals, he added.

Mohammad Ramzan, a driver from Kanina village, home to most of the children in the van, said he lost four daughters and one son in the accident.

"God had given me those children and he has taken them away," Ramzan said, as his wife cried. "All I can do is live with the sadness of this tragedy."

His wife's cries were echoed by many women in the village who had also lost their children.

Men from the village joined hundreds of people desperately searching for the missing children. Rescue workers were diving to look for bodies as soldiers and police tried to hold back the crowds.

The children were returning from school after attending a function for Eid al-Fitr the holiday that follows the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

Officials initially estimated there were 30 children in the van, but the number could be higher because some of the children who attended the celebration were not regular passengers.

Rescue workers managed pull out the van from the river but found no children inside, Mughal said: "All the children washed away, and people are finding bodies alongside the river at distant places."

The divided Himalayan region of Kashmir was affected by the devastating Pakistani floods that started in July, but that does not appear to have contributed to the crash.

Also today, a roadside bomb killed two paramilitary soldiers on a routine patrol in an area of north-west Pakistan near the Afghan border, said Riaz Khan, a local administrator in the Khyber tribal area. The soldiers' vehicle had been travelling along a road in the Sheen Qamar area of Khyber, he said.

There was no claim of responsibility, but the Pakistani Taliban have carried out similar bombings in the area in the past.