MURREE (National Times) – Federal Minister for Interior Sheikh Rashid Ahmed on Saturday confirmed that 16-19 people have lost their lives due to snowstorm in Murree and other northern areas.

According to police, among the victims, four were friends and were visiting Murree from Mardan. They died of cold while spending the night in their car due to huge traffic jam.

Local administration has launched operation to rescue the stranded tourists; however, teams are facing difficulties due disruption in mobile service and electricity supply.

On the other hand, administration of Rawalpindi and Islamabad has closed the roads going to Murree and Galiyat due to large number of vehicles entering the hill station owing to heaving snowfall.

Thousands of tourists entered the hill station on Friday to witness the snowfall causing heavy traffic jams on Murree-Islamabad Motorway. The authorities decided to close all kind of traffic going towards the hill station to avoid a further brutal traffic jam.

Meanwhile the Motorway police and local administration is busy in helping the tourists who had been stuck in their cars in the heavy traffic jam. The process of sending the cars back from Murree has also been started.

Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry has also urged people to delay their plans of visiting northern areas by some days due to heavy traffic jams.

Fawad Chaudhry, in a tweet, said that hundreds of thousands of vehicles are heading towards these areas causing problems for local administrations as they are unable to facilitate such a large number of tourists.

The minister asked people who have not left their houses to postpone their plans.