Three injured persons were admitted to Deen Dayal Hospital here and 20 others were taken to IGMC. SSP A N Sharma and a district officer rushed to the spot and supervised the rescue work.

Saying that the spot was not accident prone, Sharma said that probably the driver dosed off after a night-long driving and the bus immediately went off the road and fell into the nullah.

The injured include Parmod Singh, driver, and Moti Lal, conductor. The state government has announced ex-gratia of Rs 10,000 each for the next of the kin of the deceased. The district administration has also disbursed immediate relief to the injured persons, ranging from Rs 500 to Rs 5,000, depending on the severity of injuries. The condition of three persons is stated to be serious.

The injured admitted to the IGMC hospital include Shub Karn, 53, of Matrodh village, Dharamsala; Sanjay Thakur, 22, of Ghumartwin village, Bilaspur; Saroj Rawal of Premium Nagar, Aligarh; Shyam Lal Kaushal, 49, of Lal Pani, Shimla; Ram Krishan Sangroli of Chiragaon, Shimla; Nitin Rawal, of Aligarh; Amit Rawal of Aligarh; Vinod Kalanta of Deojee, Chirgaon; Om Parkash of Udhampur, Jammu; Sushma Devi of Hatholio-Paddarkishtwar, Doda, Jammu; Rajesh Chauhan of Paddar-Kishtwar, Doda; Harish Rawal of Aligarh; Prem Lata of Gurdaspur, Kalbnant Singh of Baithach, Gurdaspur; Avtar Singh of Tesiam village, Gurdaspur; Prem Chand of Kangra; and Surbjit, four and half year son of Prem Lata.

Three persons admitted to Deen Dayal Hospital are: Meena Kumari of Sapho village, Shimla; Kartar Singh of Nagni Kuther village, Kangra; and Jagarnath of Sarh Maras (Arki), Shimla.