8 killed, 64 injured after bus falls in gorge in Indian-Occupied Kashmir

At least eight people including two children were killed and 64 others injured Saturday after a passenger bus skidded off the road and fell down in a 70-metre gorge here in Indian-Occupied Kashmir, officials said.
The accident took place Saturday morning in Langanbal near Pahalgam town of Anantnag district, around 82 km south of Srinagar city, the summer capital of India-controlled Kashmir. .
“Eight people including two children were killed and 64 others injured when an overloaded passenger bus skidded off the road and fell into 70-metre gorge smashing with big rocks and trees at Langanbal near Pahalgam” said Pankaj Mishra, an official with National Disaster Response Force (NDRF). “We rescued all the injured from the gorge and retrieved the bodies.”
A team of NDRF comprising 35 trained people are stationed in Pahalgam to carry out rescue operations in wake of the ongoing Hindu Amarnath pilgrimage.
“We rushed to the spot on the information of local police,” said Suresh Taria, Assistant Commandant of NDRF in Pahalgam.
According to officials, the ill-fated bus bearing registration number JK03-3341 was on its way from neighbouring village Khiram to Pahalgam.
Locals said the bus was jam-packed with some passengers sitting on the rooftop.
Reports said that accident took place while driver was negotiating a curve.
Soon after the news about accident spread, locals rushed to the spot to help injured passengers. Police, rescue teams and health officials also reached spot to carry out rescue work. The injured were ferried to different hospitals in private vehicles and ambulances, while as bodies retrieved from mangled vehicle in gorge were sent to Pahalgam hospital for postmortem.
Deadly road accidents are common in this mountainous region often caused by overloading, bad condition of roads and reckless driving.
According to traffic department officials 1,080 people died in more than 6129 road accidents across Indian-controlled Kashmir last year.