School Bus fall into gorge, 20 students dead

DHARAMSALA: A private school bus owned by Wazir Ram Singh Pathania School fell into a deep gorge on Monday. It was on way to drop students back to their homes. The authorities confirmed that the bus was 42-seater. However, the number of students on-board is still not confirmed.

“It was expected that more bodies would come up, many injured were sent to the hospitals nearby,” said Abid Hussain, SDM Nurpur. With the help of local volunteers, the police have recovered a total of 20 bodies so far.

“A team of 50 doctors was standing on emergency doors including pediatricians, doctors from ortho, ENT and mostly from all departments. We have received instructions to deal with this situation,” told the Principal of the school to the correspondent. The Himachal Pradesh government has ordered the team of doctors to be present on standby.

Santosh Patial, SP, told that the bus was owned by the school. The total number of students on the bus is expected to be around 40, but the exact number is yet to be confirmed, as the rescue operation was on.

He also said, “I am on the spot and saving lives is the first responsibility along with getting the details of the fitness of the bus and all other reasons for the accident.”

Sandeep Kumar, District Commissioner said, . “We are on the job. Every kind of assistance will be provided to the effected families.” He also told that they would be giving financial and other kind of assistance to all the affected families.