42 killed as bus falls into gorge

Forty-two passengers were killed and over 40 others injured when a heavily overloaded 42-seater bus skidded off the road and fell into a deep gorge at Manjal near Gool in Udhampur district of Jammu on Thursday evening.

The bus (JK 03 3873), attached to the Kashmir Motor Depot (KMD), was going to Tata Patni from Srinagar. Police from Ramban, Dhamkund and Gool were rushed to the spot for rescue work and had managed to rescue 41 injured, who were taken to the sub-district hospital in Ramban. Twenty-one bodies were also recovered.

The death toll is likely to rise given that the bus was heavily overloaded, with passengers seated even on the roof. Rescue efforts carried on late into the night.