In Himachal Pradesh, school bus falls into gorge; 23 children, 2 teachers among those killed

At least twenty three children and four adults were killed after a school bus fell into a gorge near Nurpur in Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh on Monday evening.

“Twenty seven people, including 23 children, were killed as the school bus fell into the gorge in Kangra district,” said deputy commissioner Kangra Sandeep Kumar . The bus, owned by the Ram Singh Memorial Public School, was carrying 40-45 people.

Police said that all the dead students, 13 boys and 10 girls, were below the age of 11. The bus driver and two teachers were among the dead and the fourth adult killed was a woman who had taken a lift in the bus, Kumar said.

Eyewitnesses said the driver, a 65-year-old army veteran, lost control on a sharp curve and the vehicle fell into the 200-feet deep gorge at Cheli village, some 300 km from the state capital Shimla.

An injured student, Ranveer Singh, told Hindustan Times that he fell out of a window after the bus started rolling into the gorge.

The injured were rushed to the Nurpur civil hospital from where eight critically injured were shifted to a Pathankot hospital.

Teams from the local administration and the National Disaster Response Force involved in the rescue faced a tough time in pulling out the victims from the mangled bus.

The rescue operation was almost over, said an official.

Chief minister Jai Ram Thakur said that the food and civil supplies minister had been sent to the spot. Thakur has ordered a magisterial inquiry to ascertain the cause of the accident. He said the state government would provide all possible assistance to the family members of the deceased.

(With agency inputs)