6 children, driver killed after school bus falls into gorge in Himachal

Shimla: Seven people, including six school children, were killed in a road accident in Himachal Pradesh’s Sirmaur district on Saturday morning. The private school bus skidded off a mountainous road and plunged into a deep gorge.

The bus was ferrying children from nearby villages to DAV Public School around 08:30 am.

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.

According to Sirmaur Deputy Commissioner Lalit Jain, 12 children have been injured and admitted to a local hospital.

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

Prima facie the accident occurred after the driver lost control while negotiating a curve.

Sirmaur district is located around 150 km away from the state capital.

More details are awaited.

(With PTI inputs)