MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan, May 6 (Reuters)
- An avalanche has killed up to 24 people believed to have been looking for herbs on a mountain in northern Pakistan, a government official said on Wednesday.
The accident happened on Monday in the Neelum valley, north of Muzaffarabad town, capital of the Pakistani part of the divided Kashmir region, but the news took time to filter down the valley, said the area's top administrator, Attaullah Atta.
The 24 people were villagers from the area and were believed to have been looking for medicinal herbs when the avalanche hit, he said.
The area is near the epicentre of a big earthquake that struck in October 2005, killing 73,000 people in northern Pakistan and several thousand in nearby Indian Kashmir.
Thirteen bodies had been dug out of the snow and rescuers were looking for the others believed to have been killed, Atta said. (Reporting by Abu Arqam Naqash; Editing by Robert Birsel and Jerry Norton)