7 killed after school bus falls into gorge in HP

Six children and the driver of their school bus were killed on Saturday when the vehicle fell into a gorge in Himachal Pradesh's Sirmaur district, police said.

The accident in which 12 schoolchildren were also injured occurred in Sangrah town around 8 AM.

"A private bus carrying students of DAV School, Renuka, fell into a gorge. Seven people -- six schoolchildren and the bus driver -- were killed," Superintendent of Police, Sirmaur, Rohit Malpani said.

Four people -- Samir (5), Adarsh (7), Kartik (14) and driver Ram Swaroop (40) -- died on the spot. Abhishek, his sister Sanjana and Naitik Chauhan succumbed to their injuries at the Nahan Medical College, the SP said.

The twelve people injured in the accident have been hospitalised. The condition of some of them is critical, he said.

Ten of the 12 injured schoolchildren were identified as Sandhaya, Rakshita, Anjali, Rajiv, Aayush, Vaishanvi, Dhruv, Mannat, Aarushi and Sunder Singh.

Deputy Commissioner, Sirmour, Lalit Jain has asked Sub Divisional Magistrate, Sangrah, Rajesh Dhiman to conduct a detailed inquiry into the incident and submit a report within 15 days.

Jain also asked Dhiman to disburse an immediate relief of Rs 20,000 to kin of those killed and Rs 10,000 the injured.