Most did not die from the cold, but from the smoke from the heaters of their vehicles where they were trapped for many hours.
At least 22 people died between Friday night and Saturday as a result of heavy snowfall that isolated thousands of people visiting a mountain station in northern Pakistan. The deceased, including nine children, were trapped in their vehicles in the middle of the storm, as confirmed by the rescue services of the city of Murree, which has been officially declared a disaster area.
A police spokesman in the area explained that most of the deceased did not lose their lives from the cold, but from turning on the car heater and falling asleep. “The smoke from the heater was what killed them,” agent Raja Rasheed told Geo TV.
According to the Pakistani newspaper ‘Dawn’, the aforementioned town is completely collapsed by snowfall at a time when tens of thousands of people decided to visit the area to greet the arrival of snow. Up to 100,000 vehicles had arrived in Murree in recent days, where hotels are at full capacity and many visitors have been forced to sleep in their cars.
In fact, residents have spent days distributing food and blankets to stranded tourists, Europa Press reports. For its part, the Pakistani government has ordered the entire closure of the area to prevent the arrival of more visitors, according to the Interior Minister, Rashid Ahmed.
Official investigation
Pakistan’s meteorological department has warned that heavy snowfall in Murree will last until Sunday night. In this sense, the country’s prime minister, Imran Jan, has acknowledged that the local authorities were “completely unprepared” by this “unprecedented snowfall”, although he has ordered an official investigation into the response to the tragedy to purge possible responsibilities if there would be.
This Saturday the Government also informed of the deployment of the Army, thus joining the Police personnel who were working in the area to try to rescue tourists trapped in their cars. “At least a thousand vehicles have been trapped since Friday night (…). Some have been evacuated, but there are between 16 and 19 deaths in cars, ”explained Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed.
The opposition, for its part, has already blamed the government for its “criminal negligence” in the words of the president of the Muslim League-Nawaz Party (PML-N), Shahbaz Sharif. This political leader has reproached the Government for “not knowing how to manage even a traffic problem.”
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