In a tragic event, 22 people, including 10 children, died of hypothermia in a popular mountain resort town in Pakistan.
What Led to the Tragedy
The tragedy occurred on Friday night when 22 people, including 10 children, died of hypothermia after being stuck in their vehicles overnight in the area of the Murree Hills resort during a heavy snowstorm as temperatures dropped, officials said Saturday. Among them was an Islamabad police officer and seven other members of his family, fellow police officer Atiq Ahmed said.
More than 4 feet of snow fell in the area of the Murree Hills resort overnight Friday and early Saturday, trapping thousands of cars on roadways, said Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed. The snow was so severe that heavy equipment brought in to clear it initially got stuck during the night, said Umar Maqbool, assistant commissioner for the town of Murree. Temperatures fell to -1 degrees Celsius.
Officials called in paramilitary troops and a special military mountain unit to help. By late Saturday, thousands of vehicles had been pulled from the snow but more than a thousand were still stuck, Ahmed said.
Most roads leading to the area’s resorts were largely cleared of snow by late Saturday, and military troops were working to clear the rest, Maqbool said. The military also converted army-run schools into relief camps where they provided shelter and food for the tourists who had been rescued.
Emergency officials distributed food and blankets to people while they were trapped in their snowed-in vehicles, but many died of hypothermia. Others may have died from carbon monoxide poisoning after running their car heaters for long periods of time, said rescue services physician Abdur Rehman. As of late Saturday, the death toll included 10 men, 10 children, and two women, Rehman said.
In one instance, a husband and wife and their two children all died in their car. In another, four young friends died together, he said.
Unique Facts about Murree, the Mountain Resort Town
Located 28 miles north of the capital of Islamabad, Murree is a popular winter resort town that attracts well over a million tourists annually. Streets leading into the town are often blocked by snow in winter.
Murree is a mountain resort town, located in the Galyat region of the Pir Panjal Range, within the Rawalpindi District of Punjab, Pakistan. It was the summer headquarters of the colonial Punjab Government until 1876 when it was moved to Shimla It forms the outskirts of the Islamabad-Rawalpindi metropolitan area, and is about 30 km (19 mi) northeast of Islamabad. It has an average altitude of 2,291 meters (7,516 ft). The British built this town during their rule to escape the scorching heat in the plains of Punjab during the summer.
Construction of the town was started in 1851 on the hill of Murree as a sanatorium for British troops and became a popular tourist station for British citizens of the British Raj. Since the Independence of Pakistan in 1947, Murree has retained its position as a popular hill station, noted for its pleasant summer weather. Many tourists visit the town from the Islamabad-Rawalpindi area.
The town also serves as a transit point for tourists visiting Azad Kashmir and Abbottabad and the town is noted for its Tudorbethan and neo-gothic architecture. The Government of Pakistan owns a summer retreat in Murree, where foreign dignitaries including heads of state often visit.
The town is considered by some of its locals and by adherents of the Ahmadiyya movement to be the final resting place of Mary, mother of Jesus.