27 killed, 25 injured as bus falls into ditch

In the worst accident this monsoon season in Uttarakhand, 27 people were today killed and 25 others injured when a bus in which they were travelling fell into a 200 mt deep ditch at Chilhal village in Chakrata area of the district.

The accident occurred when the bus carrying 52 passengers was going to Vikasnagar from Hanol in Chakrata tehsil and suddenly skidded off the road and plunged into the ditch, sources in Disaster Management and Mitigation Centre (DMMC) said here.

The exact cause of the accident was still not known but sources said over speeding could be the cause as the road is not very good.

After getting information, the district administration swung into action and launched the search and rescue operation and recovered the bodies from the ditch, sources said.

Rains hampered the rescue work and some of the injured died as they could not be provided treatment immediately in the remote area. Most of the victims were locals.

The injured have been admitted to Chakrata military hospital of the area where condition of four is stated to be serious. They were being rushed to the Doon Hospital here.

Dehradun District Magistrate Ravinath Raman, who was supervising the rescue operation, said, "The impact of the accident is so bad that the bus was reduced to pieces and some bodies were badly mangled.

Uttarakhand Governor Aziz Qureshi expressed grief over the loss of lives in the accident and prayed for speedy recovery of those injured.

Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident and announced an ex-gratia of Rs one lakh each to the next of kin of those killed and Rs 50,000 to those seriously injured.

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