Multiple fatalities as bus crashes into gorge in India-administered Kashmir

A bus carrying Hindu pilgrims skidded and rolled into a deep gorge on a mountainous highway in India-administered Kashmir, killing at least 22 people, officials have said.

The crash happened in the Jammu region on Thursday when the bus plunged into the gorge. The cause of the bus crash was being investigated.

A medical officer in Akhnoor, Muhammad Saleem Khan, told Anadolu over the phone that 22 persons were brought dead to the hospital and around 69 were injured.

“Those critically injured have been taken to a government hospital in Jammu for specialised care and treatment,” the official said.

The bus was on its way from the Indian northern state of Uttar Pradesh to the Shiv Khori area of Reasi district in Jammu province.

Indian President Droupadi Murmu expressed grief over the accident, saying she is pained beyond words to learn about the loss of lives in a bus accident in Akhnoor near Jammu region.

"My deepest condolences to the bereaved families. I wish speedy recovery of the injured," she said in a post on X.

State transportation chief Rajinder Singh said the bus was carrying pilgrims to the Shiv Khori temple in the Reasi area of Jammu.

India has some of the highest road death rates in the world, with hundreds of thousands of people killed and injured annually. Most crashes are blamed on reckless driving, poorly maintained roads and ageing vehicles.

In 2022, a century-old cable suspension bridge collapsed into a river in the western Indian state of Gujarat, sending hundreds plunging into the water and killing at least 132 in one of the worst accidents in the country in the past decade.