At least 25 people were killed after a bus carrying wedding guests veered off the road and fell into a deep gorge in the northern state of Uttarakhand.
At least 25 people have been killed after a bus carrying wedding guests veered off the road and into a deep gorge in northern India, police said.
The vehicle was traveling along a treacherous mountain highway in the Pauri district of Uttarakhand state on Tuesday night when it overturned and plunged at least 500 meters (1,640 feet) with about 45 people on board.
“Twenty people have been rescued,” the state’s top police official Ashok Kumar said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that “all possible assistance” would be given to survivors. “In this tragic hour, my thoughts are with the bereaved family,” he tweeted.
Fatal road accidents are common in Uttarakhand, which includes parts of the Indian Himalayas and is home to many religious pilgrimage sites.
Nearly 24 people were killed in June when their bus plunged into a gorge on its way to a shrine to the Hindu god Yamuna, north of the state capital Dehradun.
According to the police, more than 110,000 people are killed each year in road accidents across India. The accidents are caused by reckless driving, poorly maintained roads and old vehicles.
According to a World Bank report released last year, the country accounts for 11% of all global road deaths despite having only 1% of the world’s vehicles.
The same report estimates about 150,000 car accident deaths in India every year, or one death every four minutes.
It added that road crashes cost the Indian economy around $75 billion a year, with medical costs and loss of income driving many crash survivors into poverty.
