24 soldiers killed in road accident in Pakistan

ABBOTTABAD, Pakistan: A government official says a bus carrying Pakistani soldiers slid off a mountainous road and fell into a deep ravine in the country’s northwest, killing 24 and injuring five others.

The official Aqil Badshah says the bus was going from the garrison city of Rawalpindi to the northern town of Gigit when the accident happened Saturday morning in the Kohistan district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Badshah says the dead and injured have been taken to a nearby hospital.

Road accidents are common in Pakistan because of poor infrastructure and routine disregard of traffic laws.