MURREE: Mothers with young children are among 21 tourists who perished in the Murree snowstorm on Friday night. Rescuers found bodies in cars trapped in piles of snow as the horrors of the disaster unfolded Saturday afternoon.
The dead include two families who perished with young children, two groups of friends, and others. They had come from Lahore, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, and Gujranwala.
On Saturday, afternoon rescue officials issued a list of the dead which revealed that young children with parents had perished in the snowstorm that left the region buried under three feet of snow.
A 46-year-old man and his 35-year-old wife died with their two children, an 8-year-old boy and an 11-year-old girl. They had travelled to Murree from Rawalpindi.
An Islamabad police Assistant Sub-Inspector, aged 49, perished with his wife, 43, and their four daughters and two sons. All the children were under 15 years of age. Their bodies were found in a car.
The police officer made several appeals for help. His last audio message that he sent to his cousin reveals that they were waiting to be rescued for over 20 hours.
In two other cars, rescuers found the bodies of seven men.
The bodies of four men were recovered from one car, a compact Alto VXR. Their ages were between 21 and 27 years. They had travelled from Mardan. One of them was from Karachi.
The bodies of three other men, two aged 31 and the third aged 30, were recovered from another car. The ID documents on them revealed that they belonged to Lahore and Gujranwala.
A mini-van driver from Rawalpindi’ Kamalabad was also found dead in his van.
Most of the bodies were found from cars stranded on on Kuldana Road.
Read more: Murree Tragedy: List of Murree snowfall victims issued
