MUZAFFARABAD, May 17: Eight persons, including a couple, drowned while five others were recovered with injuries after a passenger jeep plunged into a river in Neelum valley on Thursday, police said.

The ill-fated vehicle with 13 persons, including the driver, on board fell down the narrow slippery road into the Neelum River near the remotest Phulawai Kharri village in the upper belt of northeastern valley at about 7am as it was on way to Kel, Superintendent of Police (SP) Javaid Yousuf told Dawn.

He said that the residents of the area launched rescue operation but could recover only five injured persons whereas the remaining eight were swept away in the violent current and could not be fished out till the filing of this report.

Five of the drowned persons were identified as Mohammad Hussain (driver), Mir Fateh Ali, Mohammad Zaman, Mir Alam and his spouse Rukhtaj Bibi, he said, adding, identification of remaining three was being ascertained. Saeedur Rehman, Ishaq, Yasin, Mahawali and Azizur Rehman had been hospitalised, the SP said.

An official spokesman said that AJK Minister for Transport Tahir Khokhar had ordered an inquiry to determine the cause of the accident.

After a recent road accident near here in which nearly a dozen people were killed, the transport ministry had passed directions to district administration officials to check overloading in public transport besides taking those vehicles off the roads which had been altered to accommodate maximum number of passengers beyond their actual seating capacity.