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PESHAWAR: The death toll as a result of massive landslide that struck dozens of containers at Torkham border has climbed to six with dozens others injured.
Army Engineers and Army Urban Search and Rescue Teams have been participating in relief and rehab operations in the affected area.
The latest reports suggest that 15 meters of debris have been removed from the road and work to remove the remaining debris with the help of heavy machinery is ongoing. However, official sources at Torkham fear that some more drivers may still be trapped in their vehicles, which were buried under huge rocks and tons of mud at the site of the incident.
Later in the day, Peshawar Corps Commander Lt-Gen Hasan Azhar Hayat and Khyber Deputy Commissioner Abdul Nasir reached the spot and supervised the rescue operation. The army’s urban, search and rescue teams, along with Rescue 1122, local police, staff of the district administration, and hundreds of local volunteers, have been participating in the rescue operation, which continued till the filing of this report in the evening.
The Army engineering corps provided several dumper vehicles, special search cameras, rescue radars, steel cutters, life locators, and other related earth-moving and excavation-related machinery for the rescue operation.
The landslide occurred at around 2 am yesterday, hitting loaded vehicles parked on the export lane when some drivers and cleaners were asleep inside their vehicles, while some were busy preparing Sehri.