At least 36 people were killed after an overcrowded dilapidated bus went off the road and crashed into a deep gorge in northern India on Monday (November 4), the New York Post reports.
The accident took place in the Almora district of Uttarakhand, according to officials. About 60 people were on the bus at the time of the crash and more than 20 have experienced injuries, a senior state government official confirmed.
Authorities believed there were 42 passengers, which was how many the bus could accommodate, at the time of the crash. Rescue and relief workers were deployed to the scene of the crash and the death toll is expected to rise as seven others are reported to be hospitalized in critical condition.
Footage shared on television newscasts showed the bus mangled and destroyed in the deep gorge while rescuers pulled out passengers. A state government investigation into the accident has been a launched, according to state official Vineet Pal, who said the dilapidated bus skidded before falling down the 200-foot-deep gorge, according to preliminary information.
Several passengers either managed to escape or were thrown out of the bus during impact and alerted authorities about the crash. Two transport officials were suspended after they approved the bus despite it being in poor condition.
India is estimated to have hundreds of thousands of road deaths annually, which is among the highest rates in the world.