48 killed in bus accident in North India

Forty eight people were killed and eleven injured when an overcrowded bus spun off a slippery road and fell into a deep ravine in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand yesterday, police said. “It was a 28-seater bus but was carrying 59 passengers,” said a police official at the office of senior superintendent of police from the local area called Pauri where the accident took place. He declined to be identified since he was not authorized to speak to the media. Rescue operations are complete and police are trying to get the dead bodies identified by relatives and friends, the police official said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted saying he was “extremely saddened by the bus accident in Pauri Garhwal.”