44 dead in India gorge bus plunge: officials

At least 44 people were killed when a bus in India’s mountainous state of Himachal Pradesh plunged into a gorge on Thursday, officials said. Another 28 were undergoing treatment, many of them for critical injuries, after the private, overcrowded vehicle veered off the road and fell into a 150-metre (500-foot) gorge in Kullu district of the northern Himalayan state.

Officials had given an initial toll of at least 25 dead but later said 19 others succumbed to injuries. Kullu police chief Shalini Agnihotri told AFP the injured were taken to the nearest hospitals where they died during treatment.

Many of the victims were women and children coming back from work and school, she said. The bus was carrying more than 60 passengers, a large number of them on the roof, when it lost control at a sharp curve and rolled down the steep mountain before perching on the edge of a stream.