23 schoolkids among 27 killed as bus rolls down gorge in Himachal

Tribune News Service

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Dharamsala, April 9

Twenty-three schoolchildren, two teachers, one unidentified woman and a bus driver were killed after the vehicle they were travelling in rolled down a 500-ft gorge near Nurpur on Monday afternoon. The accident happened at about 3.30 pm near Gurchal village on Nurpur-Chamba road, 12 km from Nurpur town.

The deceased children were students of Ram Singh Pathania Memorial School located in the area. The children hailed from nearby villages. The bus was on way to drop them home after the school closed down at 3 pm.

The driver, identified as Madan Lal (67), an ex-serviceman, was among the dead. One of the dead teacher has been identified as Rajesh.

At Nurpur civil hospital, the parents of deceased children were inconsolable, finding it difficult to come to terms with their loss.

Balwant Singh, father of a deceased child, alleged that buses that were used to ferry schoolchildren were in a poor shape.

A team of National Disaster Management Authority and local fire brigade reached the spot two hours after the accident. In the meantime, locals carried out the rescue work.

Earlier, Kangra Deputy Commissioner Sandeep Kumar admitted that more than 20 children had died in the accident.

Sources said the authorities were finding it difficult to retrieve the bodies from the mangled remains of the bus.

Sources on the spot said many children died on the spot. Till the filing of this report nine children had succumbed to their injuries in Nurpur Civil Hospital, while two were in a critical condition and were shifted to a private hospital in Pathankot and three to Tanda medical college, Kangra.

Many more bodies were still trapped in the bus.

Initial inquiries at the spot revealed that the driver of the bus lost control and the bus skidded into the gorge. The poor condition of road or some technical fault in the bus might be reason for the accident.

Apart from the DC, SP Santosh Patial also rushed to the spot. Local BJP MLA Rakesh Pathania was also involved in helping the injured.

The deceased children who have been identified are: Sarika (6) d/o Manoj Pathania, Sneha (6) d/o Ajay Singh, Harsh Pathania (12), Tarun Sharma s/o Sudhir Sharma, Saruti (12), Diksha (11) d/o Naresh Singh, Ishitha (12) d/o of Vikram Singh, Yuvraj (10) s/o Dilbagh, Parmeesh Thakur (4) s/o Raghunath, Kanna (4) s/o Rakesh Pathania, Palak Jamwal d/o Rajesh Singh, Bhvishaya Jamwal s/o Radhav Jamwal, Harsh Pathania s/o Radhav Singh, Gaurav Pathania s/o Kewal Singh, Mukul Kayshap s/o of Ram Piyara, Kartik Katoch s/o Surjeet Singh Katoch, Pranav s/o Karam Singh. Naitik s/o Naresh, Surushtika d/o Naresh Kumar, Jahnavi, Shagun d/o Gulshan Kumar, Ritika. — With agency inputs