Nine children die as school bus falls into gorge

New Tehri : Nine children died and 10 were injured when a van taking them to school fell into a deep gorge in Uttarakhand's Tehri Garhwal district on Tuesday morning.

The accident occurred on the Pratap Nagar-Kangsali-Madan Negi road near Lambgaon. The van was on way to the Angels International School, he said Nine school children and 10 were injured.

The children who received serious injuries have been brought to the district hospital, Tehri District Magistrate V Shanmugam said. The children are from the Kangsali village and aged between four to 13 years.

State Disaster Response Force, district administration and medical professionals rushed to the spot and helped evacuate passengers of the bus and had the injured shifted to hospital.

Meanwhile, chief minister of Uttarakhand, Trivendra Rawat has also ordered a magisterial-level probe into the incident.

Rawat also expressed his condolences and directed the officers concerned to act quickly in their rescue efforts. In another accident, five passengers died and several were feared trapped when a boulder fell on their bus at Lambagad slide zone on the Badrinath Highway.

Efforts to save the trapped people was underway, and a police team was also present at the spot. More details are awaited.