New Delhi - At least 28 people were killed when a bus skidded
off the road and rolled down a mountain gorge in India's northern
Himachal Pradesh state Thursday, police said.
"There were 35 to 36 people on the bus and 28 of them died," an
official at the police control room in state capital Shimla said.
The bus was travelling between two towns in the hill state when it
skidded off the wet mountain road with hairpin bends and plunged into
the 200-metre deep river gorge below, police said.
Six injured people had been admitted to a local hospital.
Accidents during the rainy or monsoon season are not uncommon in
India which has a high rate of fatal traffic accidents. This is
mostly blamed on poorly maintained roads and vehicles or negligent
driving.
An average of 135 000 people die on the country's roads each year,
according to government data.
Thursday's accident took place at Shaneri, near the town of Rampur,
about 120 kilometres south of Shimla.