Four Dead After Truck Plunges Into Gorge In Jammu's Landslide Struck Highway

Four people lost their lives in Jammu as the truck that they were travelling in plunged into a deep gorge near the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway.

Screengrab from the video that showed the landslide struck area near the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway

Four people died in Jammu on Tuesday morning as their truck plunged into a deep gorge after being struck by a landslide alongside the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway. Vehicular movement in the Ramban district got suspended after a landslide hit the highway near Sherbibi at around 5 am, said a police official while talking to the news agency PTI news. The official added that the truck was headed to Srinagar from Jammu when the unfortunate incident occurred. 

Police and local volunteers immediately launched a rescue operation to save any who would have survived, however, there weren't any survivors. The rescue team retrieved all four bodies from the distorted truck. The deceased were identified as Mohd Afzal Garoo who was the driver of the truck (42 years old), his brother Altaf Garoo (36 years old), Irfan Ahmed (33 years old) and his brother Showkat Ahmad (29 years old). All of them were residents of the Anantnag city.

VIDEO | “A truck carrying four passengers fell into a gorge following a landslide in the area (J&K's Ramban district). All four passengers died on the spot," says a volunteer of NGO Banihal, whose members helped in the search and rescue operation. pic.twitter.com/1JlFr2xM1Y

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) September 12, 2023

The truck was also carrying six cattle that were being transported for domestic use. The cattle also lost their lives in the accident, said officials while talking to PTI. 

The landslide that struck the area led to the temporary closure of the only all-weather road linking Kashmir with the rest of the nation. As per officials, efforts are being made to restore it for vehicular movement to resume as normal, reported PTI.

Earlier in July, hundreds of vehicles got stuck in Udhampur as the Jammu-Srinagar Highway was shut after a massive chunk of road along the highway caved in due to heavy rain, news agency ANI reported. According to ANI, a part of the road that connected the two tunnels on the national highway got washed away after landslides occurred in several areas of the Ramban district in Jammu following heavy rain.