BAGH: A truck rammed into a state-run girls’ middle school in an Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) village near district Bagh on Friday, leaving two students and their teacher dead. The driver involved in the incident has been apprehended.

Another teacher and two students were injured, police said.

The incident occurred in Beer Pani village, some 18 kilometres away from the city of Bagh, so at about 9:30am, due to the “negligence of driver”, Station House Officer City Police Station Bagh Faizur Rehman told Dawn by telephone from the area.

He said the loaded truck, carrying wheat flour bags to Beer Pani Bazaar, went out of driver control when he was negotiating a turn and ran into the school along the road, the SHO said.

As it was a sunny day, students of primary section were holding their class in the lawn, the SHO added.

The school doesn’t have any boundary walls.

As a result, a teacher Karam Jan, 40, and two sisters Iqra, 12, and Sidra, 10, (daughters of Mohammad Sarwar) died on the spot.

Another teacher, Rukhsana Bashir, 40, and students Iqra, 8, and Maria, 11, were injured.

They are said to be in stable condition.

The SHO said around two thousand people had gathered on the scene of the accident and the atmosphere was tense.

The driver, identified as Amjad, a resident of Beer Pani, fled from the scene after the accident, but was apprehended after two hours, the SHO said.

Most of the village schools in AJK are alleged to be either without a proper building or boundary walls, which comprise their privacy and security.

Recently a picture was splashed by a section of media wherein students were seen taking classes in the open on snowy ground.