Kotdwar (Uttarakhand): At least 25 people were killed and 20 others injured when a bus carrying around 45-50 members of a marriage party fell into a gorge in Uttarakhand's Pauri district, police said on Wednesday.
The bus was on its way to a village in Bironkhal from Laldhang when it met with the accident near Simri bend at around 7.30 pm on Tuesday, they said.
Rescue operations were carried out throughout the night, police said.
Twenty people injured in the accident were pulled out of the mangled remains of the bus and rushed to hospitals, they added.
On receiving information about the bus accident in Pauri district, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami reached the disaster control room located at the Secretariat.
He took stock of the situation from the officials and also spoke to Pauri District Magistrate over the phone and instructed him to carry out relief and rescue work with utmost vigil.
Dhami directed the State Disaster Control Room officials to continuously monitor the situation and be in constant touch with the district officials.
The Chief Minister added that all possible help will be provided at the government level and also spoke to the Lansdowne MLA over the phone.
Terming the bus accident as unfortunate, Dhami has directed to make arrangements for all possible treatment of the injured persons and speed up the relief and rescue operations with coordination.
The Chief Minister directed the Uttarakhand Secretary (Disaster Management), Ranjit Sinha, that the disaster management system should be operated continuously and the situation should be kept under constant watch.
Dhami himself is supervising all the preparations. Sub-Divisional Magistrate and ambulance, lights, rescue equipment, two ambulances from Ramnagar, one ambulance from Haldwani and relief materials are being sent to the affected site. Proper arrangements have been made in the hospitals of Ramnagar and Haldwani.
The District Magistrates of Nainital and Almora are themselves monitoring all the arrangements. The Chief Minister also inquired about the situation in Uttarkashi and has postponed all the government programmes proposed on Wednesday.
