At least 21 people died in an enormous traffic jam caused by tens of thousands of visitors thronging a Pakistani hill town to see unusually heavy snowfall, authorities said Saturday.
Police reported that at least six people had frozen to death in their cars, while it was not immediately clear if others had died from asphyxiation after inhaling fumes in the snowdrift.
Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid said the military had mobilized to clear roads and rescue thousands still trapped near Murree, around 70 kilometers (45 miles) northeast of the capital, Islamabad.
Video shared on social media showed cars packed bumper-to-bumper, with one-meter-high (three-foot) piles of snow on their roofs.
Meanwhile, in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, at least 14 people were killed and 17 injured Saturday when a coach and a minibus smashed into each other at high speed, security officials said.
The minibus and the coach, which had come from the capital Cairo and was heading for the Red Sea tourist resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, collided while speeding in poor visibility due to fog around dawn, officials added.
The crash took place close to El-Tor in southern Sinai, some 300 kilometers (185 miles) southeast of Cairo.
The casualties were taken to a hospital in El-Tor.
Travel accidents are frequent in Egypt, where many roads are badly maintained and traffic rules often neglected.
About 7,000 people were killed on the country’s roads in 2020, according to official figures.