37 killed as bus falls into gorge in J&K

Doda (J&K): At least 37 people were killed and 19 injured when a bus carrying passengers skidded off the road and rolled down into a 300-foot gorge in Jammu and Kashmir’s Doda district on Wednesday, officials said.

The bus was reportedly carrying 56 passengers, they said, adding that it skidded off the road near Trungal-Assar on the Batote-Kishtwar national highway and fell 300 feet downhill.

A rescue operation has been launched and some bodies have been retrieved, the officials said.

The death toll is likely to go up. “At around 11:50 am, a bus bearing registration number JK02CN6555 met with an accident at Trungal-Assar on the highway, in which 36 persons died and 19 injured. This ill-fated bus was on its way from Kishtwar to Jammu.