12 killed, 35 injured as private bus falls into 500 feet deep gorge in Himachal's Sirmaur

Nahan (HP): Twelve people were killed and over 35 were injured after a private bus fell into a 500-feet deep gorge in Himachal Pradesh's Sirmaur district on Friday afternoon, officials said.

The accident occurred when the bus en route from Shimla to Kupvi via Rajgarh veered off the road and plunged into the gorge and landed upside down near Haripurdhar village, around 95 kilometres from the district headquarters, Nahan.

The seating capacity of the private bus was 39, and the bus was overloaded, they said.

Sangrah Sub-divisional Magistrate (SDM) Sunil Kayath, who is at the spot supervising the rescue operation, told PTI that the rescue operation is going on war footing and the injured were being rushed to nearby Sangrah and Dadahu hospitals.

Expressing grief over the accident, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, in a statement issued here, directed the district authorities to provide all possible assistance to the next of kin of those killed in the accident and ensure the best medical care to the injured.

The BJP national president and Union health Minister J P Nadda, Leader of the Opposition in Himachal Assembly Jai Ram Thakur and state BJP chief Rajiv Bindal, Shimla BJP MP Suresh Kashyap and Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri have also expressed grief on the tragedy.

Industry Minister and local MLA from the Shallai assembly segment, Harshwardhan Chauhan, said the district administration has been put on alert, and medical teams and doctors at Dadahu, Sangrah and Nahan hospitals are prepared for emergency.

He said the cause of the accident is yet to be ascertained and expressed condolences on the incident.

Locals on the spot suspect that the bus driver might have lost control of the vehicle, following which it skidded off the road due to frost accumulation.

In videos circulating on social media, a large crowd is seen helping in the rescue operations, trying to get the injured out of the wreckage of the bus. Officials of the district administration, police and others are also at work.

Balbir Chauhan, a resident of Haripurdhar and member of the BJP state working committee, said that the locals have done remarkable work in rescuing the passengers from the deep gorge in the difficult conditions.