Uttarakhand: At least 21 killed as bus falls into gorge
The accident took place in Uttarakhand's Nalupani area on Tuesday evening.
The bus was carrying a group of pilgrims from Indore, Madhya Pradesh, when the vehicle fell into a gorge and hit the rocks on the bank of Bhagirathi river.
The pilgrims had started their journey on May 12.
The deceased were a part of a bigger group of 57 people when they left Indore.
They stopped at Rishikesh and boarded two Uttarakhand bound bus to reach Gangotri, when one bus met with the fatal accident.
"Our bus from Indore had stopped at Rishikesh. The pilgrims had boarded two local Uttarakhand buses (27 seat buses) to move on to Gangotri, when one of the buses fell into the gorge," tour operator Shashi Verma was quoted as saying by the Times of India.
Meanwhile, Uttarakhand police said that out of the 21 deceased, 16 were women.
"The bus broke into pieces at the bottom of the gorge near the banks of Bharathi river. The rescue operations could not be launched from the gorge bottom, so rope bridges were formed from the other bank to ferry the injured across to safety. The bodies were also moved in the same manner," the Dharasu police-in charge told the daily.
A team of water police, ITBP, SDRF and local police started a search operation.
The death toll is expected to rise.
Image: screengrab from YouTube
Uttarakhand map from Google Maps
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